Electronic Slaves

This post was supposed to be my whiny little story about how my aging Kindle stopped uploading new books and how I had to go into my Amazon account and upload them manually, one at a time. And to punish me, it spontaneously rebooted itself. Twice. But somewhere along the way it morphed into something else.

I got to thinking about electronic devices, and how dependent we’ve become on them – i-Pads, tablets, e-readers, laptops, and the most insidious of all, the cell phone. Almost everyone I know has a cell phone, I’ve even seen little kids with them.

What I really find hard to understand is how attached people are to them. I even had a friend boast to me once that her whole life was on her phone. Really? I use my phone for taking pictures, texting (somewhat reluctantly), and (gasp!) as an actual phone. That’s it. No banking, no aps, no social media, no games.

Occasionally I might check my email, but I’ll fire up the laptop if I want to answer any of it. GPS might be handy, except I have nowhere to go these days. Facebook? Forget it! Those keyboards are teeny tiny and really annoying to use. I find it hard to comprehend how anyone can type actual words using just their thumbs.

People get the Kindle app for their phones so they can read books on those tiny screens. Some watch videos on their phones. I can barely read text messages, I can’t imagine trying to watch a video.

It bothers me that we’ve become so dependent on all these electronic devices. I’m the first one to admit I’d find it hard to live without my laptop. Not impossible, when push comes to shove there’s always pen and paper for writing, but difficult. My Kindle? I’d mourn the loss of all those books, but I have plenty of unread books on my bookshelves.

As for my phone, well, I have a kick-ass camera and a land line. I’m good.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 4,176
Blog Posts – 935+456+596 +806=2,793
Total = 6,969

The wordage is creeping up, and it isn’t the blog words this week but the Driving Into Forever words.

Editing:

The TraxTime program tells me I spent 5 hours and 28 minutes editing Blood Ties last week. A little less time than the week before, but it was much more productive time.

What I’m Reading:

I still have not cracked open The Jackal, by J.R. Ward. Maybe I’ll use it as my reward book for when I finish editing Blood Ties.

Believe it or not, I only read one tree book last week, Irish Rose, by Nora Roberts. Maybe that’s why I was more productive with the writing and editing.

However, my poor, ailing Kindle got a work-out. I finished the last two books of Shifter Shenanigans - Blue Moon Dragon and Fiona’s Mates - by Shelley Munro and have started Alien Shenanigans, which is also a three-in-one deal.

Goals

Looks like I rocked all my goals last week.

I did a respectable amount of editing on Blood Ties, and I feel like I made actual progress. I powered through that pesky scene that was holding me up, adding a few hundred words in the process. The next chapter (lucky number 13) needs to be pared down, which is always more fun than adding to.

OMG! Where did all these versions of Driving Into Forever come from? There must be eleventy billion of them. And therein lies the reason this novel floundered for so long. I kept changing my mind about whether certain scenes should be included, and what order they should be in.

The section I was working on this week had three different beginnings and five different middles. And none of them transitioned logically from the first two chapters I’d already rewritten. I had to read all these scenes, decide what was important, and then work from there. Yikes!

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Limit my reading time.

I did it last week, let’s see if I can manage a repeat.

Quest of the Valkyrie

The year is 2010. I had what I considered a solid idea for NaNoWriMo. It was something different for me, a contemporary romantic suspense made all the more unique by the fact I had the idea well ahead of November first. That alone should have set off an alarm bell for me – normally I only have a vague idea of what I’m going to write before NaNo starts.

So it really wasn’t a surprise when I was five days (and 12,000 words) in and realized this particular idea was not a good fit for NaNo. I needed more time to develop it and I could see where I was going to have to do some research and maybe even (gasp!) use an outline. I gave it a couple of days to make sure, and then I abandoned it and began writing a science fiction suspense/adventure called Quest of the Valkyrie.

I came up with this idea in high school and had ream of notes on different scenarios and characters and had even written bits and pieces over the years. I had a box full failed attempts and disjointed scenes. I really had no clue what I was doing back then.

But something about it called to me. I knew the story. I read as much of the failed attempts as I could stomach and then started from scratch. 52,000 words later I had another NaNo win under my belt, and the first volume of the trilogy I’d always dreamed of writing.

Prologue

In the history of the Old Race, before the Confrontation Wars, the Ashardean Silversouls began receiving portents of disaster. There were visions of a new race of beings invading the galaxy; beings terrible in their ability to fight – beings without conscience and without mercy.

They did not know when this would happen, only that it would happen. The conflict would encompass both known space and regions that were as yet unknown. It would culminate in a confrontation between The Betrayer and The Defender that would decide the fate of every species of known space.

The Old Race had been in existence since the dawn of time, so legend had it. They were the peacekeepers, the keepers of knowledge. They were long-lived, but not prolific. The Silversouls could only tell them that their knowledge would be needed were the human population to survive; they could not divine whether or not the Old Race itself would survive.

And so the Old Race began amassing knowledge. They built a repository for this knowledge on a barren moon and this place became known as the Temple of Wisdom. Five keys to the temple were fashioned out of virgin firestone and all five were needed to unlock it. Each key had a guardian, a genetic code that would be recognized at a specific point in time and then hidden until needed.

Having taken what precautions they could, the Old Race sent the moon off on a journey through space, knowing that even if they did not survive, the repository would. To keep the knowledge safe, details of the Temple, the Keys, and the Guardians were expunged from all records, save for a series of riddles kept under lock and key. And so the years passed . . .

Chapter One

The battle was three hours old. There was no sign of the enemy ship, though it left behind a trail of debris. The Valkyrie came to full stop in space, stabilizers barely able to keep it from drifting. Chandra, last of the Old Race, stood on the command platform beside Commander Aleron, an eye of calm in the storm of activity around them. “Has the Kohl-trin ship left the system?”

“Affirmative,” the dark haired man seated at one of the terminals surrounding them told her.

“Were you able to identify it?”

He swiveled to face her. “It was the Serpent.”

Chandra nodded, unsurprised, eyes still focused on the view screen.

“Estimated time of repair?” Aleron asked.

The sandy-haired man seated at the next terminal looked up with a frown on his face. “We need to put in some time at a base station, sir,” he said. “We really took a beating, damage reports are still coming in.”

“Do we have star-drive capabilities?”

“Short hops only, there’s a power flux that can’t be accounted for.”

“Plot a course for the nearest base station, but wait for my order before engaging.”

“Yes sir.”

“Skyler, Bran, I would like to see both of you when you’re finished here,” Chandra said. With a last look at view screen, she left the command centre.

The two men looked at each other – Bran raised an eyebrow in question, Skyler shrugged in answer. They darted a look up at Aleron who was looking at the closed door, as surprised as they were.

Seven Wonders Part II – The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Legend says the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built by King Nebuchadnezzar in 600 B.C. for his queen, Amyitis, who missed the mountains and greenery of her homeland.

The Hanging Gardens probably did not really hang but were built on terraces which were part of a ziggurat and was irrigated by water lifted up from the Euphrates. The name comes from an inexact translation of the Greek word kremastos, or the Latin word pensilis, which means not just "hanging", but "overhanging" as in the case of a terrace or balcony.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus gave one of the best accounts of the site:
The approach to the Garden sloped like a hillside and the several parts of the structure rose from one another tier on tier. On all this, the earth had been piled…and was thickly planted with trees of every kind that, by their great size and other charm, gave pleasure to the beholder. The water machines [raised] the water in great abundance from the river, although no one outside could see it.

Impressive not only for its beauty, the gardens would also have required an impressive feat of engineering to supply the massive structure with soil and water. There were paths and steps and fountains and gorgeous flowers. The gardens were rumoured to be about 400 feet wide, 400 feet long, and over 80 feet high. Some historians believe the gardens were built in a series of platforms that all together were 320 feet high.

Stone tablets from Nebuchadnezzar’s reign give detailed descriptions of the city of Babylonia, its walls, and the palace, but do not refer to the Hanging Gardens, which make some historians question whether the Hanging Gardens of Babylon ever actually existed.

In 1899, German archaeologist Robert Koldewey discovered a basement with fourteen large rooms with stone arch ceilings while excavating the Southern Citadel at Babylon. Ancient records indicated that only two locations in the city had made use of stone, the north wall of the Northern Citadel, and the Hanging Gardens.

The north wall of the Northern Citadel had already been found and had, indeed, contained stone. This made it seem likely that Koldewey had found the cellar of the gardens. He continued exploring the area and discovered many of the features reported by Diodorus. Finally a room was unearthed with three large, strange holes in the floor. Koldewey concluded this had been the location of the chain pumps that raised the water to the garden's roof. The foundations that Koldewey discovered measured some 100 by 150 feet. Smaller than the measurements described by ancient historians, but still impressive.

While Koldewey was convinced he'd found the gardens, some modern archaeologists call his discovery into question, arguing that this location is too far from the river to have been irrigated with the amount of water that would have been required. Also, tablets recently found at the site suggest that the location was used for administrative and storage purposes, not as a pleasure garden.

It can be argued, however, that the Hanging Gardens are not mentioned in the Babylonian stone tablets because they were considered part of the ziggurat structure and not a separate entity in itself.

We may never know for sure whether the Hanging Gardens of Babylon really did exist. If the gardens did exist, they were most likely destroyed by an earthquake in the second century B.C. In this case, the fallen remains, mostly made of mud-brick, would have slowly eroded away over the centuries.

Danger Ahead

There is a danger to posting excerpts from former (and still unfinished) NaNo novels.

With the first one, Driving Into Forever, I got the irresistible urge to go back and rewrite the darn thing. I say rewrite because it’s such a mess I think it would be easier to start from scratch than try to fix it. The next one, Forever and For Always, had me wondering why I’ve let it sit so long. And this last one, the Faery Heart, made me nostalgic for this epic Science Fiction Romance universe I’d created.

I need to get Blood Ties finished first.

Then I need to get An Elemental Spirit done.

Then I can go on to other things with a clear conscience. But man, oh, man, is it ever tempting to work on all of them at once! And what’s worse with the Faery Heart is that I couldn’t resist reading the whole thing and I remember what else needs to be included and I’m wondering where the notes are for it. I distinctly remember the way a couple of scenes were worded that come after where I left off, but they weren’t included in the document file. So where are they? Should I rewrite them as best I can recollect just to make sure I don’t forget them? Should I spend some time hunting around on USB keys and various hard copy files to see if I can find them?

You see the danger I’m in.

And I fear it’s only going to get worse. This week’s excerpt will be from Quest of the Valkyrie, which replaced Knightsong in my 2010 NaNo, and which starts the whole epic science fiction universe series. It’s the first of a projected trilogy, as the Faery Heart is, and did I mention that the whole Elemental series takes place in that universe?

Must edit faster.

Must write faster.

And that’s the good news. I have a renewed desire to buckle down to work.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 1,644
Blog Posts – 880 +484+605+1557=3526
Total = 5,170

Even if you take away the excerpt from Friday’s post, I did better word-wise than I have in ages.

Editing:

According to my trusty little TraxTime program, I spent 8 hours and 22 minutes editing Blood Ties last week, plus about an hour last night after I’d already written and scheduled this post. Finally! I’m making progress.

Publishing:

None. And my mermaid story was rejected *insert sad face here*. Seeing as I haven’t really been making any effort at publishing, I might just set this one aside for now.

What I’m Reading:

I received The Jackal, by J.R. Ward, in the mail this week, but I haven’t cracked it open yet. I made it through about three quarters of Troll’s-Eye View, the anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, before I started jonesing for an actual novel. So then I did a stupid thing. I picked up a Nora Roberts book, but not just any book, no. I picked up the first in her Chronicles of The One series, Year One

And of course I couldn’t just leave it there, I also read Of Blood and Bone, and The Rise of Magicks as well. I love me some end of the world as we know it scenario, and this one was well done. And it also struck a little close to home seeing as it started with a swift spreading pandemic. You know, sort of like Stephen King’s The Stand, and sort of like what’s going on in the world around us.

I find it kind of interesting that both authors show how a world-wide crisis brings out both the best and the worst in people, just like it’s doing in reality. But unlike reality, both fictional stories are ultimately the fight of good against evil. And though there are certainly similarities, both stories are very different.

It just goes to show you that authors can have the same idea and totally different approaches to it.

Goals

While I’m not unhappy with the progress I made last week, I could have done better. Part of it wasn’t my fault though. The hubby was laying new flooring in the hallway outside my office, so although I spent some time in there, it was a little distracting when I was.

I had my best week so far editing Blood Ties, but I don’t feel like I’m making a lot of progress. There’s this one scene I’m stuck on – writing and rewriting – and it’s starting to annoy me. If I was writing, I’d just skip it and move on, but I’m editing and this is one of the things I have to fix.

I gave up on the note taking for Driving Into Forever and I dove right into rewriting it. Rewriting makes better sense than just editing because I have about 5 or 6 different beginnings to it and I think that’s why I never got anywhere with fixing it. I need to settle on one and stick with it.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Keep working on Driving Into Forever
3. Limit my reading time.

This is where you cross your fingers for me.

The Faery Heart

My 2009 NaNo novel, the Faery Heart, is one of my favorites. I love both the story and the characters. It’s a science fiction romance/fantasy crossover set in a universe I created for a different series. The excerpt is a little long, but it couldn’t be helped. In a nutshell, Simon works for an organization that is trying to unite/protect the beings of the universe. When his ship crashes, he’s rescued by one of the mysterious Fae and ends up helping save her world from a bunch of bad guys.

Simon eased back the throttle on the PROBE class scout ship and aimed towards the cloud cover of the planet below. With any luck the raiders chasing him hadn’t been able to follow his trajectory.

They’d come out of nowhere, the Alliance raiders in their blaster scarred ship. There was no reason for them to attack him, other than sheer maliciousness. A probe ship wasn’t worth the effort to capture – there was no superior technology on board, no equipment worth salvaging – it was a long range, exploratory craft.

There were three planets in this solar system he could have chosen from, and several moons that had possibilities. He could expect no help from any of them, none showed any signs of space capability. If they were inhabited, they were not technologically advanced. But with any luck the raiders wouldn’t figure out where he was until help was on its way.

Unless, of course, he died in a fiery crash, then rescue would be a moot point. Probe ships weren’t meant to land on a planet, although it had been done in the past. But not by him, and not without consequences. Simon cursed under his breath and smacked the console in front of him with the flat of his hand.

The altitude gauge obediently started to function properly again, but the three red lights beside it continued to blink steadily. Fluffy white clouds streamed by the cockpit canopy. Simon hated clouds.

A proximity alarm went off.

“I know, I know,” he muttered under his breath, then smacked a switch above his head until the alarm stopped.

There wasn’t much room in the cockpit of a probe, they were a one man space craft, nor were they designed for anyone with the slightest hint of claustrophobia. To think he’d been so proud of the fact he was one of the few from Chandra’s elite squad that passed the rigid psychological testing to have probe scout added to his duties.

The surface of the planet was coming up fast, too fast. He cursed and wrestled with the throttle. The sensors showed woods and water below, neither of which made for ideal landings, especially not crash landings. Breaking through the clouds he skimmed over a heavily wooded area towards a large body of water.

“It beats the trees,” he said under his breath, and shut down the engines.

An abrupt shutdown was not recommended in the class one deep space probe scout ships, but neither was landing on water. The odds of surviving either were not in his favor. If Simon had been a praying man, this would have been the time to do it.

Unfortunately, he had no time for prayers, he was too busy trying to keep the nose of the ship above water.

“Think like a duck,” he told himself, “Think like a duck.”

He didn’t really know how a duck thought much less how it landed on water and managed to stay afloat, but it sounded better than, “Oh, shit, I’m going to crash!”

The probe ship hit the water and bounced twice, its forward momentum carrying it towards the rock encrusted shore. Simon snapped forward then back in his seat, thrown against the safety harness that was not really meant to provide anything more than a fleeting sense of protection.

By the time the ship came to a rest, after plowing a furrow on the shore of the lake, Simon had lost consciousness.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

Arianna was strolling along the shore of the lake, by herself as usual, when she saw the fireball in the sky. For a few moments she admired it as something new and interesting, but then she saw that the fiery object was headed towards the lake and growing larger with every second.

The scream of straining engines was abruptly cut off and she realized with dawning horror that it was a ship about to crash. A ship meant people, but surely no one could survive such a crash.

Heart in her throat she stood frozen, watching its approach. She lost sight of it in the clouds before it broke cover over the forest, coming so close to the tops of the trees she was surprised they didn’t catch fire.

The ship continued its descent, closer and closer to the surface of the lake. She gasped as it struck the water, bouncing twice before slicing through the clear lake, a rooster tail of steam and water in its wake.

With a screech of metal against rock it plowed into the shore and finally came to a stop, a curl of black smoke coming from the tail section. Arianna stood frozen for a few seconds, unsure of what she should do.

She glanced around to see if anyone else had seen or heard the crash. There was no one in sight, they were probably all at the grove, or even in the crystal cave. They wouldn’t be able to see from either of those places. It seemed she was the only witness.

Cautiously, she approached the craft. It was smaller than she had at first thought, it could not contain more than two or three people at most. Where had it come from? Were more on the way?

A quick glance upwards revealed no other ships or fireballs within her sight. It did not mean there would not be more to come, just that there were no more imminent. The queen would not like it if this ship was a precursor to settlement. It might mean they’d have to move yet again. Like many, Arianna was growing weary of moving from planet to planet.

It took her several minutes to reach the ship, picking her way carefully over the stones on the shore. It was black and sleek, shaped like an arrow head. She stood and studied it, unsure if she would be able to help whoever was inside or not.

The nose of the craft was buried in the ground while the smoking end was still resting half in water. She could see no door or hatch. As she wondered how it opened, the canopy near the nose released.

Startled, she stepped back, poised to flee. Were the occupants friendly or hostile? Were they human, or something else altogether. Nothing else happened and after a few moments she slowly approached again.

“Hello?” she called. “Is there someone there? Do you need assistance?”

No answer was forthcoming. Hesitantly, she reached out and touched the ship. When it did not burn her, she stepped closer. She bit her lip in indecision and then drew close enough to the ship to see inside.

To her dismay, there was someone inside, and they weren’t moving. A smoky haze started to fill the small compartment. There was no help for it, she would have to go inside. Because it was buried so deeply in the ground, it was a simple matter to climb up on the wing and then down into the ship.

There was a man strapped into the pilot’s seat. There was blood on his forehead, but he appeared to be alive. There was no way of telling if he had any other injuries. She was about to leave and get help when he stirred and groaned.

“Can you move?” Arianna asked. “Do you understand me?”

His eyelids fluttered, then opened. He peered at her with a dazed expression. “Am I dead?”

A smile blossomed on her face. “No, you are not among the dead. But you must leave this vessel. I do not trust it not to cause you more harm.”

“Anything for you, angel.” He fumbled with the harness restraining him and found the release. He would have fallen forward if she had not been there to catch him. The unaccustomed weight in her arms sent a strange shiver through her.

“I am not an angel,” she told him sternly. “I am of the Fae.”

“Angel, Fae, you’re still the woman of my dreams,” he said. There was a bemused grin on his face.

“You are injured,” she said patiently. Obviously his head wound was affecting his judgment. “You must leave this vessel.”

“Just lead the way, angel.”

Arianna took his arm and pulled him toward the open canopy. She stepped up and then helped him up as well. He stumbled when he stepped onto the ground and tried to sit down on the edge of the wing.

“No! You cannot stay here, you must come away from the shore,” she demanded.

“Bossy little thing, aren’t you?” he mumbled.

She guided him towards the forest bordering the lake and let him sit beneath the broad branches of a tree.

“Lie down and sleep now,” she told him. “When you awaken, all will be well.”

Seven Wonders Part I – Pyramids of Giza

The Great Pyramids consist of the Pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops), the somewhat smaller Pyramid of Khafre (or Chephren), and the relatively modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinos).

By far the most famous pyramid in Egypt, is the Pyramid of Khufu, the biggest, tallest, and most intact. For a period of 4300 years, the Pyramid was also the tallest building on earth, until the French built the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

Khufu reigned from around 2589 to 2566 BC and was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He was the son of another great pyramid builder, King Sneferu. Although Sneferu was remembered as a benevolent and beneficent ruler, Khufu is believed to have been a more ruthless and cruel despot.

The Pyramid of Khufu is built entirely of limestone, and is considered an architectural masterpiece. It contains around 1,300,000 blocks ranging in weight from 2.5 tons to 15 tons and is built on a square base with sides measuring about 230m (755ft), covering 13 acres. Its four sides face the four cardinal points precisely and it has an angle of 52 degrees. The original height of the Pyramid was 146.5m (488ft), but today it is only 137m (455ft) high. The 9m (33ft) that is missing is due to the theft of the fine quality limestone covering, or casing stones, by the Ottoman Turks in the 15 Century A.D, to build houses and Mosques in Cairo.

The second great pyramid was built by Khafre, Khufu’s son. Khafre was the fourth ruler of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling from 2558-2532 BCE. His name means "Appearing like Ra.” Like his father Khufu, Khafre was depicted as a harsh, despotic ruler.

Despite this, Egypt was quite prosperous during his reign, with almost no military attacks or campaigns. The culture flourished, however, and the private tombs from his era are beautiful examples of art and architecture. In addition, the worship of the sun god Re was also prospering.

He built his pyramid at Giza next to that of his father. It’s easily recognisable by the layers of its original casing stones that still remain near its summit. This, along with the fact that it stands on a higher part of the plateau, gives the impression that it is taller than the Great Pyramid. This is an optical illusion as it is only 136m (446 ft) tall, with sides of 214.5m (704ft), a surface area of 11 acres and an angle of 53 degrees. It also has lost some of its original height through the years.

Khafre’s son, Menkaure, built the smallest of the three main pyramids on the Giza Plateau. Menkaure was a pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt (c. 2532 BC–2503 BC). His name means "Eternal like the Souls of Re".

He is reported by the Greek historian Herodotus to have been a just and pious ruler. He was thought to have disapproved of the conduct of his father and the Egyptians praised him more than any other monarch.

Menakure’s pyramid was only a mere 65.5m (215ft) tall, nowadays 62m (203ft), with sides of only 105m (344ft) and an angle of 51.3 degrees. It is thought that this pyramid was altered during its construction, and made a lot bigger than originally planned. The original, smaller pyramid had a simple descending corridor and burial chamber, but when it was enlarged, a new corridor was built with 3 portcullises and a small panelled chamber. Later still, another burial chamber, along with a storeroom were added at a lower level. This Pyramid, like its two neighbours, has a north facing entrance.

Excuses, Excuses

There’s another good reason (okay, maybe not a good reason, but still a reason) besides my binge reading as to why I haven’t been very productive the last few weeks.

If you read my regular blog that I post to on Mondays, you’ll know that in the fall we started a kitchen renovation. This meant, among other things, that we had to empty everything out of the kitchen so we could rip out cupboards and plumbing, etc. Most of this stuff went into plastic bins which then needed to go . . . somewhere.

The stuff I deemed unimportant (ie, that I don’t use on a daily basis) got stacked in my old office (now the hubby’s office). The stuff I used most often was stacked in and around the dining room, and the in-between stuff went into my office, including a pink wing chair from the living room.

This overcrowding of my office is not conducive to a creative atmosphere. I like things organized and that’s a little hard to do with all that extra stuff. I’d also like to rearrange my office a bit but to move anything in my office first I have to get rid of that pink chair. And to get rid of the chair I have to get rid of all the bins out of the hubby’s office so the chair can take their place.

See, the big window in my office has a southern exposure and the way things are now there’s a big chunk of the day where the sun is right in my face. This is really hard on the eyes and it makes it hard to see what I’m doing on the computer. And if I want to write anything long hand, I have to have a light on behind me.

The good news is, the counters were finally installed in the kitchen last week which means I can start reloading/organizing the cupboards. I’m hoping that with the end of the kitchen renovation in sight, there will also be an end to my lack of productivity.

Hope springs eternal.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:
Blog Posts – 898+546+421+1110=2975
Total = 2975

I did about 1,000 words better on the blog posts, but the words for the Friday post feel kind of like a cheat because most of it is an excerpt from something I’ve already written. Once I run out of NaNo novels this will probably change, but for now it feels like Friday shouldn’t be included.

Editing:
Whoopsie! I forgot to set the counter. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I did get some editing done on Blood Ties. Not every day, and not as much as I would have liked, but some at least.

Publishing:
None. And I still haven’t heard back about the last story I sent out.

What I’m Reading:
Once again, this is where most of my time went. But at least there were no late nights where I stayed up reading until my eyes burned.

I finished Blood Truth. by J.R. Ward and went on to read Where Winter Finds You, The Sinner, and A Warm Heart in Winter. The Jackal will be delivered some time this month, and then I’m done with the Black Dagger Brotherhood universe until Lover Unveiled is available in paperback. I have been so consumed with reading these books that I’m actually grateful I still have bins of kitchen stuff blocking my bookcases so I can’t reach the other books in the series because at this point I don’t think I could keep myself from starting with the first book and going through the entire series, including the ones I’ve just read.

To help pull myself out of the BDB universe, I zipped through Christmas Letters, No Competition, and All Things Considered, by Debbie Macomber – nice, fairly uncomplicated romances that had all the feels without the intense drama.

Next up I’ll be reading the anthology Troll’s-Eye View, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

Goals

Last week’s goals were once again pretty much a bust. No words on anything except blog posts, no outlining, no organizing. I did get some editing done on Blood Ties at least, and I started making notes on Driving Into Forever so I can start moving forward with that, so at least that’s something.

My big goal for this week is to seriously stop messing around and get myself back on track. I’m out of BDB books and I’m going to keep those bins blocking the bookcases until I lose the urge to start the series from the beginning again. Hopefully making the switch to anthologies (I have three more after I’m done with the Trolls) will help me curb my reading addiction.

1. Spend more time in my office and less on the couch.
2. Keep up the edits on Blood Ties.
3. Limit my reading time.

It always looks so good on paper, doesn’t?