Sadie Jay

I actually managed to finish the first draft of Smoke and Sparks last weekend, so now I'm going to let it sit for a bit before I start editing. Even so, I'm behind on CampNaNo, which doesn't surprise me. With the boss is out of town, I'm working overtime. On top of less time to write, I'm tired. But he'll be back in a few days and maybe I can get caught up again. At least it's beginning to look like Spring is really, finally, here.  In last week's snippet, Mick realizes he knew Headphones' dad and that they'd met  once  when she was in her teens. Headphones is the nickname that Mick bestowed on Jessie in the first book before anyone knew her name, and it stuck.  “Alright, Jessie?” Mick said, letting her know he was there. She startled and then grimaced. “Don’t call me that.” “What? It’s your name.” She shook her head as she answered. “No, she was someone else. I don’t even know her anymore. She’s broken.” Ah, she was in o...

This WIP is killing me. I suppose 5 years ago when I started this journey, I would have been thrilled to write a novel in 4 months. Now? Not so much. I have to remind myself that I really am limited on time and I did stop to write a short story in the middle of all of this. But I've stalled...terribly. I can't seem to just write the story. I write and then I edit. Hell, I'm editing  as  I write. I started this novel as my April Camp project (totally expecting to finish it in May, and when that didn't happen, in June) and I'm determined to finish it by the end of July. I did manage almost 2000 words over the weekend, bringing me to over 35500, and I finally got past the scene that's been killing me for two weeks. Fingers crossed, it's going to go more smoothly now! Excerpt from Chapter 12: “Did you have fun with my cousin Jenny?” The words vibrated against Jeb’s lips but made no sense to his lust-addled brain. Everything in the world centered arou...

I feel like I'm starting to get back on track, become a bit more focused again. Maybe it's just those last few months of winter--they do seem to weigh heavy on me. I've also changed my plans a bit from my last post. I'm going to go ahead and do the April Camp NaNo, but I'm keeping my goal low because of vacation. I'm going to try and get some words down for Cut Shot , and then with any luck I'll have it done by July, plus the rewrite on the second Headphones installment. I'm not planning any further than that. After all, my plans constantly change. Let's just say I have some ideas on what I want to complete by the end of the year and leave it at that! Excerpt from Headphones: Summer Heat , chapter 10: Headphones sat curled in the center of the soft leather of the couch as she watched the rain through the big bay window. A gully washer, her dad would have called it. The evergreen was bending in the wind while thunder shook The House. The light...

This last week went much better at 6311 words. I'm not sure if it was because it was too hot to be outside much, or if I just made some decisions about the plot line. Like normal, it always hits me just as I go to bed, so I make barely legible scratches on my note pad and try to figure it out the next morning! Since I kept my CampNaNo goal low this time, I should easily make it within the next day or two. I had thought about setting it aside after I hit goal and start editing Embers And Flame, but I think since I've got this one in my head fairly firmly now, I'm going to try and finish it. Then I'll probably stay away from anything original for the rest of the year and work on sentence by sentence edits of my small collection, plus the Headphones rewrites. I keep pushing that one aside, and I really want to dive back into it. With any luck, by the end of the year, I'll have 4 stand-alones and a 3-book series to start seriously querying. Fingers crossed! This week...

At 3527 my word count was better than I expected, considering I had company all week. I guess the fact that I took time off work and spent time with my laptop while she was still in bed really helped! Anyway, my CampNaNo project is progressing. I'm really thinking this is going to be Novella with a 40K word goal, but considering I started it with the vaguest idea of a plot and no outline, who knows where it's going to go! At this point, I'm trying to assert that Jordan is a bit of a lost boy/punk and Reese is an all around good guy. This week's excerpt: Reese ran through the last strip of unmowed grass just as Jordan pulled up. With any luck, the nights would stay cool and it wouldn’t need to be mowed again. He watched as the car pulled up on the gravel drive and in the light of day, he could see that the old Ford had been well cared for, but the door squealed as it was opened and he doubted even a shot of WD40 was going to help. He pushed the mower into the shed an...

    Camp is well under way. This is something different for me, going into writing something after only thinking about it for a week. Usually, I give myself months to develop the characters and let the story grow before I start typing, but this one is happening in a whole different way. I'm letting it happen as I type, except I'm seeing flashes of what's coming and I'm taking lots of notes. Unfortunately, my writing time is limited for at least another week because of Real Life. I'm tracking okay, but I purposely kept my Camp goal low for that very reason. I'm definitely feeling more of a connection with Reese and Jordan than I did Cherry and Ben, and I still wonder if it's because I did it in dual 1st person. I really felt like it bogged me down. This one is dual 3rd person and it's moving smoother. Anyway, I'm tracking and last week's word count was 3585 (still not where I would like it to be, but I'll get there!)   Excerpt from this week...