It was about this time last year I was gearing up to go to the Kingston Writersfest. *sigh*
Man, what a great idea! It spans five seminar and class filled days, with a few evening events thrown in for good measure. With offerings from such luminaries as Jane Urquhart, Linwood Barclay, Catherine Bush, and Helen Humphreys (to name just a few), there’s something for everyone.
There were a couple package deals offered where you could stay for all five days, or just for the weekend, but they included not only your hotel stay but all the classes/seminars for those days. My friend and I picked the weekend package and went up for Friday evening through Sunday.
Kingston is a beautiful city, and the hotel was right on the waterfront. Most of the activities were either in our hotel or a short walk away. The classes were interesting and while I might not have taken as many notes as some, I still feel like I learned a lot.
The only downside of the experience was that I lost my friend – not literally, just when we started out we were friends but when we were done we were . . . not. To this day I have no idea what happened. In hindsight I suspect she’d been trying to end our friendship for a long time, I was just too dim to realize it.
But life goes on and I guess it’s just going to have to remain one of life’s mysteries. In any case, I was really, really looking forward to going for the whole five days this year. Five days in a cushy hotel while I immersed myself in the writing experience. Only I hadn’t counted on the pandemic.
Oh, you can still go to Kingston and stay in a hotel (not the one I was in last year) but the classes and seminars are through Zoom – the online video chat service. Sorry, not my cup of tea. Half the beauty of Writersfest was the energy of the group gathered to hear the speakers.
I’m getting a little fed up with COVID-19 and the way it’s messing with everything. Social distancing is one thing, but even Word on the Street (the annual street book festival) has gone virtual. I don’t do virtual and I don’t handle change well.
Yeah, I know. Take a deep breath. There’s no point in looking back, all we can do is look forward, and what I’m looking forward to is finishing Blood Ties so I can get back to work on Knightsong.
Knightsong is the novel I started, then abandoned several NaNos ago. It’s a little bit of a departure for me, being a romantic suspense – nothing paranormal or fantasy about it. This is the novel I was going to take to the Spring Thaw retreat to work on, only Covid-19 forced it to move to the fall and then again to next spring.
Oh, well. At least it gives me something to look forward to in 2021. And hey, maybe I’ll even have the novel finished by then and I can edit it during the retreat.
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Wordage Report
Editing – 2 hours, -5 pages
Since it was just sitting there, I started editing An Elemental Spirit, and as you can see I started off with cutting. There’s a lot more to be cut before I can start adding words.
Research – 3.25 hours
Blood Ties – 2,055 words
Slightly under last week, but it was a short week.
Blog Posts – includes the post for my regular blog, but not the prompt story.
427 (regular blog)+ 883 + 403 = 1,713 words total
Weekly Prompt – 1044 words
Total Words – 4,812
New Prompt
Write a 300 word story in the epic genre. It's about an old man in love and should include a poster. Also use the sentence 'Thanks for nothing.' Bonus prompt: Civilization has come to an end.
Goals From Last Week:
I have to say, I’m pleased with the progress I’m making on Blood Ties. I’ve been switching back and forth between Jessica and Howard, and the Howard scenes aren’t as difficult to write as I thought they’d be. Despite last week being a short one, I still managed a goodly amount of words, plus I’ve been making notes of things I’ll have to change/add during revisions. I kind of wish I’d dedicated a notebook to the series when I first started but . . . hindsight.
I didn’t get the prompt story written as early as the one from the week before, but at least I had it up in time. I was only a few words over the limit set by the prompt, and that was after cutting 500 words from it. And you know what? I think it was a better story for the cuts.
Man oh man I’m going to have to get my editing rear in gear if I’m going to get my book flood anthology done in time for Christmas and my two books edited by the end of the year. Especially if I’m doing NaNo this year. I hate to mess up my NaNo winning streak, but I didn’t like the changes they made to the website last year and I haven’t been back since so I don’t know what else they’ve done to it. Maybe I’ll do an editing version of NaNo on my own.
That being said, I did do a little research on my NaNo idea, but it’s slow going and there’s a heck of a lot more to be done.
Goals For This Week:
1. As many words on Blood Ties as I can manage – I want it done so I can do something else without feeling guilty about it.
2. New prompt story. I’m not too sure about this week’s prompt, but we’ll see what comes of it.
3. If I’m not going to edit my book flood stories then I will edit Elemental Spirit. No reason I can’t switch back and forth between the two.
4. Continue the research for my NaNo idea. Even if I don’t do it this year there’s always next year.
And there’s what I’ll be up to this week. How about you?
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