I have finished inserting the extra material into Lottery Odds, and will be well over the 90,000 word baseline established by Harlequin HQN.  By the time I get done smoothing out the transitions and editing the existing material, we will probably be around 94-95K.  Since the submission request was for the first three chapters and a plot summary ( ( Read more... )

In less than a week--in fact, four days by my count--my wife and I will be on vacation.  We're going up to North Lake Tahoe to patronize our timeshare, featuring a cabin within stone's throw of the shores of Lake Tahoe itself and, more importantly, just the two of us.  Four days with all the books, DVDs, music, hiking, video games and relaxation we ( Read more... )

Some brief writing-related thoughts:

1)  I've found it a little amusing that after title of their novels, some authors feel the need to put the words A  NOVEL.  You know, like: "The Host: A Novel by Stephenie Meyer."  It's almost as though if the author doesn't put those two all-important words after the title, I'm going to mistake their book for a ( Read more... )

50,075.

I did it. I beat NaNoWriMo for the fourth year in a row. I'm also four chapters from the end of the book, but for now, that's something I can think about later. I also went back over the material. It rambles a bit, but I like it. It has an authentic feel to it all.

Maybe when I'm done, Dead of Winter will be coming to this space. ( Read more... )

Time for a literary update, of a sort. So far the word count for Dead of Winter stands at 37,122 words, and I am currently on Chapter Eleven. Now, especially when one bears in mind that I had only gotten about three hundred and fifty words into Chapter Eight before switching gears (sometimes it helps to jump around if you're in a word count vs. ( Read more... )

I haven't posted any updates lately on the progress of Dead of Winter, but it bears mentioning that I am now just a shade under 30k with half the month gone, which gives me about two to three days worth of cushion on the writing front. Since I fully expect there will be a couple days in there where I don't get to write because of household chores ( Read more... )

The word count at the end of today on Dead of Winter was 12,323 words.  Not too bad.  I am beating the per-day average of 1,667 words by about a 2-1 margin, and the fair Bebe has served as an excellent nemesis to compete against.  I feel good about the way the plot is unfolding, and I am enjoying the banter between my characters.  So far, it's been ( Read more... )

I watched for a week and it all came crashing down tonight.  I bought another sports jersey.  Steve McNair Tenneessee Titans #9.  Price in store:  $110.00.  My price:  $39.95.

Thank you, Ebay.  And thank you to my wife for putting up with my addiction.

Word count right now on Dead of Winter is 7,784.  I'm having a glass of $60 per bottle wine to help ( Read more... )

So today I finished the prologue chapter of Dead of Winter and also started the first chapter as well.  I finished pretty close to 5,000 words, and I got a lot of football watching done, plus I showed up for a taping of Good Morning Sacramento at 8:30 or so this morning.  You can see the story they ran on our group at this link, and I am the one in ( Read more... )

I've been asked by some people what the plot is for this year's edition of National Novel Writing Month.  Here's the sales pitch:

A grisly murder in Lake Tahoe draws the attention of a fledgling paranormal investigation team working on behalf of private interests and the United States government.  The previous incarnation of the group met an ( Read more... )