Sadie Jay

As a little "side job", I bake cookies. This isn't important as far as this blog goes, but it is one of the reasons I'm not getting much writing done this month. I signed up for a vendor show on December 1st and I've spent the month baking and icing cookies. One more week and that huge undertaking will be done. Then maybe I'll attempt my own "NaNo" in December!            The second reason Smoke and Sparks bogged down is because Daryl showed me a side that I hadn't realized was there so I'm making a few changes to my original story. It's a good thing; I'm starting to get a better feel for my characters.            In the meantime, I'm going back to Cut Shot for this week's snippet. This takes place early in Jed and Ian's relationship when they're still feeling each other out: Excerpt from chapter 4: Within a half-an-hour, they were back in the truck and then parking in front of the Shortstop and he didn’t reca...

For this week's snippet, I'm going back to Embers and Flame . My NaNo project is moving slowly and the first draft is still extremely rough. I think mentally it was a rough week plus I've had some work-related projects that have cut into my writing time.  I have the problem when starting a new project of letting go of the last one. In this case, Ian and Jed from Cut Shot are still rolling around in my head, making it hard to grab hold of Vaughn and Daryl. Couple that with this current WIP being the second in the series. I've been going back and rereading bits and pieces, which has Ben and Cherry jumbling it a bit, also. Once I get through the next chapter or two, this story won't be running concurrently with the first, so the writing should (hopefully) move quicker. Right now I keep "fact checking", making sure everything is lining up.  This week's snippet is a conversation between Ben and Cherry and comes from Embers and Flame. It's the w...

I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I've set my own goal. I'm not going to stress myself with 50K, instead aiming for 30K. The first year I did NaNo, I made the 50K and I would love to do it again, but I simply have too many other commitments this time. Ideally, I'll surpass my minimum goal and get Fire and Smoke 2/3s written in November and finish it in December. Of course, things never work out as I plan! Today's snippet is from this NaNo project. It's snipped from Daryl's opening chapter. He's with a group of his friends at a campground and the conversation is between him and his older cousin, Mike: “Hey, Turkey, come help me with this,” Mike yelled at me. He’s called me Turkey my whole life. When I asked why he said it was because I looked like a plucked turkey when I was born. Yellow-pale skin with a round belly, legs drawn up, and pointed elbows that flapped like wings. I’d asked him to stop more than once. It made it worse. “This” was lower...

I didn't do much on the writing front this week. I get this lethargy between manuscripts , like I'm a bit lost and don't know which way I'm supposed to be walking. I did a couple of edits on my NaNo project first page (which you can read in a previous post ) and worked on a couple of pages in the second Headphones book. But what I need to be doing is outlining and prepping. Since the beginning of Fire and Smoke runs concurrently with the end of Embers and Flame , I really need to reread and take notes so everything lines up. I always feel so unprepared when I start a new story, but somehow it always falls together. Hopefully, it will this time, also. Today's snippet comes from Embers and Flame . Daryl and Vaughn meet through Ben and Cherry, who are in a long distance relationship. Ben is from Southern Indiana, Cherry is from St. Louis. Ben, with his son Eric and his cousins Mike and Daryl, join Cherry and his sister and her friend Vaughn for a weekend of food ...

For my NaNo project (National Novel Writing Month), I've decided to work on the Embers and Flame sequel, tentatively titled Fire and Smoke . It's going to be Vaughn and Daryl's story. My goal is to make it into a light-hearted romance without a great deal of angst. Probably not going to happen. When I write, the angst just always finds its way in. So anyway, I like to have the first few pages set before I start the serious writing. I know I'll edit it 10 times in the next week, but here's the first draft. Opinions? (just for reference, the incident that Vaughn and Lindsey are talking about happened in the first book and entailed Vaughn following her brother into the bathroom, where he proceeded to get a bit too handsy.) Chapter One “I thought you said your brother was working tonight,” I hissed to my green-haired companion. “Relax, Vaughn. I must’ve got my days mixed up. Maybe he works tomorrow? Er, no. Oh, it’s Wednesday!” She smiled as if she was waiting...

     I wasn't sure, even on the morning of November 1 if I was going to do the challenge this year. But I told myself "just start and see where it goes." I'm having a difficult time sticking with it, but even on my worst day, I did 700+ words, so even if I don't make the 50K goal, I'll have a good chunk of the book written by the end of the month. If I'm happy with the first one, hopefully, the other two will fall into place. I ended at 8110 last night, which means I'm a little short of my goal of 8333. I probably would have made it except I had a horrid headache that cut into everything I had planned for the day.      I'm happy with it, though. I have found, oddly, that I've put more of Mark in the first chapter than I did in the original. When I first started writing Headphones in high school, he was meant to be the main character partnered with Jessie, but I somehow lost that when I was writing the serial. Not sure what'll happen this...

I was completely unmotivated last week. Yes, I continued working on my edits; no, I didn't get very far. I find them almost impossible to stick with. I need to find a different system. Maybe write for 3/4 of my allotted time, edits for the other fourth. We'll see.   So what I did was read. Naturally. I read Santino Hassell's Third Rail that is a leadup to Citywide , his collection of Five Boroughs shorts coming out November 13. If I've never mentioned that I love the 5B books, I'm mentioning it now. Never read them? Do it! I also read Sleigh Ride by Heidi Cullinan. She offered it free a few days ago, and I tend to grab free offerings. It's the second in the Minnesota Christmas series and now I really want to read the other three!  And, I read Briefs by Anyta Sunday. It's a collection of happy-ending shorts. I read the first two, and maybe it was just my mood, but I found them a bit lack-luster. But I continued reading and really enjoyed ...

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...

I made my Camp NaNo goal, so yeah me! I purposely set it lower than the November challenge, simply because I was being realistic. Nicer weather means time outside. But still, a challenge like that where I go online daily and record my progress seems to help me keep my mind on the project. With that said, I'm still shaky on this story. I'm feeling it more, and I'm not sure I really felt "Cracks" until I hit about 30K words (which is where I am on E&F now), so maybe that's just how long it takes for me to really feel my characters. I keep diverting from the original plot outline, which probably isn't helping, either! Anyway, I've tightened Chapter 1 a bit, so here it is in its present form: Chapter 1 Cherry The roar of the motorcycle pulling into the campsite next to mine shattered the peace of the evening, and I imagined that sunset’s reflection in the small lake rippling with the vibrations. I glared as the intruder flipped the kickstand d...

    Well, as of yesterday, 5 days in, I'm tracking okay. Today and tomorrow are going to be a challenge, just because of my work schedule. In November, when I did the NaNo challenge, we had enough extra help and I was able to leave early on occasion, giving myself an extra hour or two through the week, but that's not possible this time. If anything, it's a bit flipped-- I've been working extra. It's one of the reasons I kept my word count low. Before, I could do some marathon sprints on the weekends, but I think we've got something going every weekend this month, so I'm not going to have the same opportunities.     But, on the upside, the story is starting to flow. Each book I've written has had a challenge at the start. Headphones was just me challenging myself to complete something, because I always started things, but notoriously never finished. And at 180K, I did! (Now to edit it into an actual printable format. That's next on my list.) Then c...

10 days to go on the NaNoWriMo challenge. I'm just a few hundred words under goal, so I'm pretty happy about that. I've gone over the 30k mark, and my goal was to at least get that far, since this is my first time doing the challenge. Last week was rough--I had a couple of chapters that I reworked. I can't decide if what is going on around me is hindering me or if I'm using my writing as an escape. Maybe a bit of both! Anyway, I hit the 'bahm, bahm, bahm' moment of the plot, where my MCs have been torn apart, and now comes the part where I sew them back together. Fingers crossed, I might just do this!

So, the events of this week have me brain addled. Writing is sporadic. I've dropped behind by more than 2000 words. I'm going to try and push forward this weekend, make some of that up, but chances are I'm finger-tied and idea-paralyzed. But I'm not stopping and I'm not giving up.