Almost...there...
I feel like I spend half my time on this blog apologizing for not blogging, so I’m not gonna do that this time. But I will tell you what I’ve been up to. Ready?
WORK.
Seriously. Not laundry. Not cooking (especially not after that disaster of a pot roast). Not watching TV (except for SYTYCD, on DVR, minus commercials and certain annoying bits of the judges’ commentary). Just work. I’m SO close to finishing BEFORE I WAKE. In fact, I’m at the final showdown, RIGHT NOW. Well, the semi-final showdown. It’s kind of a two-part showdown, between Kaylee and the forces of evil. There are many forces of evil in her world, and she hates them all equally.
76,776 / 90,000
(85.31%)
Right now, the manuscript is peppered with comments from myself. Helpful things like, “This sucks. Make it better.” And, “Did you forget about that THING she was supposed to do with that THING?” And, “What is she, cardboard? What is Kaylee FEELING right now?” In the second draft, I will come up with brilliant ways to fix the problems these comments point out. Or I will die trying. Or, more likely, I will come up with mediocre ways to fix the problems these comments point out, then my editor will see these problems and politely suggest that I now get serious and fix them for real.
Hey, if the system works, why mess with it?
In other news, tomorrow, Tod is up against Jeri Smith-Ready’s Zachary in the semi-finals of the YA Crush Tourney. Now, when this started, I thought it was a cute little internet tournament. A YA popularity contest, which brought all the horrors of highschool* back to haunt me. (I will NEVER be elected homecoming queen!)
But, I have been won over by the YA Crush Tourney, thanks in no small part to the awesome Rachel Clarke (@fiktshun on twitter) who has been championing Tod for several weeks now, and to you, the awesome voters, who keep pulling Tod through to the next round. But the best part? You wouldn’t believe how many people have said that they discovered the Soul Screamers series through this tournament.
That’s right! New readers! This is the internet at its best!
So, that said, I’m both a little nervous and a little excited about tomorrow’s match up, because Jeri Smith-Ready has been a friend of mine for several years (she was among the first of my fellow authors I ever met), so I kind of feel like tomorrow is a win-win. If she and Zach win, I’ll be happy, because I like her. If Tod and I (and @fiktshun) win, I’ll be happy, because I like us too.
Also, I haven’t forgotten that I owe you all a Tod-cookie for voting for him last time. As soon as Facebook stops eating all my updates, I’ll post a real live poll there and let you pick your reward (as a group).
*Highschool wasn’t actually horrific for me. There, now you know my shame. I had good friends, my fellow band geeks, and good grades. But I never ran for homecoming queen.