Memorial Day Weekend

Here on the last day of May I have been reviewing my word count and find that I have crossed over the 400,000 limit this last week. Since the last update I had entered all the changes of the second draft of Caution’s Heir so that is now finished completely and ready to be shopped around. I have composed a query letter and now must just find agents and editors to send this too.

Taking up the reins of the next project I struggled with an outline for another regency for several days and so revisited the manuscript of Terra’s Birthright. While the story and plot for that was decent, as I reread my earlier work nearly twenty years old, I find I am much better at the craft now than I was then. I have added to it, nearly 150 pages and this is one of the two projects I am working on concurrently to finish. I also have over forty pages of the manuscript now for the next regency, Two Peas in a Pod, the story of twins who are so close in appearance that they often switch roles with one another. I think that my regencies get better with each telling.

The Gratitude Log

1) Painter X–I have been playing with more and more and making pictures such as this.
2) We Rule– a game for the iPhone and iPad in which I spend time every day growing my kingdom.
3) Cafe World–-another game. This one at Facebook. A great time waster also.
4) iPhone–Which makes possible phone calls, music, games and so much more.
5) Exercise–I have been riding the stationary bike again this last week and that is a good feeling.

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Beggars Can’t Be Choosier-Finis

Here we are and happy to report another sale for The End of the World

The End of the World and Regency Assembly Press

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We are at 78 sales. We have one review from our readers. Click on the picture to order a copy at Amazon or go here. As those who are following know, The Shattered Mirror is now being edited. We have three editors and myself working on it.

The Shattered Mirror, Regency 2 for Regency Assembly Press is being edited by the production edit crew, Deedira, Nora and Corinne. ​

Then I have been writing the next book for RAP, or Regency Assembly Press, which is Beggars Can’t be Choosier. I haven’t worked on the cover yet, but I finished it on Satruday, the 8th and we have 102,517 words. Now for the year we are at 1160 pages, or 348K words. I think for Beggars this picture might be our centerpiece.

Now it is time to choose another and to type in the editing of Cautions Heir. Cautions starts at 123K and it will go the route of traditional submittal at this time. Along with the Space Mine story. (That could use a better title)

The Gratitude Log

1. Arby’s–They have taken the Super off the menu board, but it is still in the computer . It has Lettuce and tomato so it makes the entire thing a sandwich.

2)        Horsey Sauce–Well while at Arby’s you have to appreciate this.
3)        McBooks Press–I am reading a review of one of the books they publish. I won’t talk yet about that, since I have read 2/3rds and not finished the book, but the publishing company has done wonders to give Wooden Ships and Iron Men literature. Thanks for them.
4)        Castle–A writer friend was talking today about how she liked the show, and it was the only one she watched. I watch a lot of shows, because as a writer, other writers can give me ideas, and this is a show about a writer, though one does help Nathan Fillion is as smart as the writer he is portraying.

5)        Painter X–I had the first edition of this software in the painting can, years ago, right when I got out of the macintosh and had to give the software away. But then 15 years later I got a mac again and they have gone to version 10 (11 now) so I was able to get it again. It is the best painting and picture from photo making software, ever.

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One point Eight Million

First for Gratitude today we have the following

1. Tommy’s-Makers of a Los Angeles favorite, chili hamburger, the Original Tommy at Beverly and Rampart has been part of our culture for as long as I have been around.
2. Family Tree Maker–This software was invaluable in helping me create our family Tree which came out looking great with 185 people just on one side of the family where we only had a sketchy idea of 50 or so. We learned of six generations and had a reunion of 50 people just last sunday.
3. Paper Cutter–Scissors are really not fine. Even good scissors, but a paper cutter with a straight cut works out well.
4. Empire Total War–The price has recently come down and I can think of no better game this year.
5. YouTube–One of my favorite time wasters is subscribing to a few series on such things as Empire Total War and watching numerous gaming battles played out. I watch several of the younger generation conquer the world, while my videos on Time Commander and Rollercoaster Tycoon have been watched over 18,000 times.

So now where are we today in my writing…

First I crossed a threshold today and expect another tomorrow.
I am tracking 18 works that I either have completed or started in a significant state that I wrote enough to be worthwhile (Not just three pages, but at least 40.) I now have just 5 that remain in Work In Progress State, and today I completed between all 18 of these works, 1.8 million words.
I expect tomorrow to reach 650,000 words for the year.

My chart on this, one of them is:

Count	Book Name	Word Count	Srage
1	Born to Grace	210,968	2nd Draft
2	Chivalric Dreams	166,726	2nd Draft
3	KoTohLan *	144,672	Ist Draft
4	Mrs. Bertram’s Hazard *	129,462	Ist Draft
5	Caution’s Heir *	123,431	Ist Draft
6	Amnesiac Cowboy	118,089	2nd Draft
7	Graces of Brantley *	112,871	2nd Draft
8	Trevannion’s Legend	125,206	Ist Draft
9	NaNoWriMo 2009 *	101,376	Ist Draft
10	Colonel Fitzwilliam *	99,959	Ist Draft
11	Col. Pen *	98,362	Ist Draft
12	Space Mine *	97,915	Ist Draft
13	Tranquility Hilton	77,277	2nd Draft
14	Born to Grace II	39,387	WIP
15	Muskeeters *	37,873	WIP
16	Terra’s Birthright	35,339	WIP
17	Roses War	68,284	WIP
18	Steam and Thunder *	12,805	WIP
Total	1,800,002

So i think I have done quite well for the year in production. And it is not just verbal potpourri that comes from my fingers, but I think very good material now. The first few books twenty years ago would have extensive notes and paragraphs in the margins as I edited for I had left themes undeveloped, or I had construction problems, like POV. Now, these last couple years of intense writing, I see only a few notes as i go along. I added 2000 words or so between drafts of Graces of Brantley, for instance.

This week I also completed the edit draft by hand of Caution’s Heir, so I can start entering it into my computer file, and I have now started the edit draft of The End of the World. When finished with that, it will go to publication at Regency Assembly Press.

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April 1st

Lined up the links for the Reading List page.

Should finish the rollercoaster tycoon page today in the first form, since just have 8 scenario guides to post.

Have written half of todays scene for Chapter 7 of Space Mine, the shag scene.

Now a half hour later finished the shag scene and just have to add the names when I return home.

And now want to give a synopsis of Cautions’ Heir.

This was a regency that came to me just less than a year ago.

I wrote the entire first draft in under two months. Several thousand words a day.

The brother of a very wealthy man dies and he, denied wealth for so long, gambles it all away in an instant. He leaves a daughter and his estate and the daughter fall into the hands of the son of a man who also had lost a fortune but has spent the lifetime of this son rebuilding his wealth. Thus the son is frugal and now does what he can for the woman who is thrust upon him.

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