Thurs is Weds for ROW80 check-in

At least my characters are still talking to me.

Since Sunday's check-in, I've been preoccupied with doctor visits for hubby, assimilating what the Publishers Weekly review really means, and doing a little quilting and some reading. Somehow I feel not quite unpacked from the trip back east, though it was only 10 days away from home.

Perhaps it's the weather change, now fully into spring, green leaves everywhere, rhododendron and lilacs in full bloom, the cherry blossoms now gone with those hard little green bits promising fruit. Perhaps it's that review from PW that continues to resonate, despite warm support from writing friends and family.

Natalie Goldberg's quote from Writing Down the Bones stays with me just now, challenging me to persevere:  “Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”  I shall try.

ROW80 Sunday update and goals for the week ahead:

--Write 300 words every day. Doesn't matter on what. Goal 4 out of 7 days. So far this week 2 days (1200 words).
--Draft book supplements for Years of Stone (afterword, list of characters, map, glossary). Draft blurb for cover. No progress.  
--Post on writing blog 2x, travel blog 1x, ROW80 2x and read minimum 5. OK progress. Posted 1x on writing blog, 1x on travel blog, 2x on ROW80 blog and read 9 for ROW80 so far. 
--Write Reflection piece for A to Z challenge. Not yet. Maybe never.
--Revised and submitted "Color Me Green" (short story). Done.
--Read at least one of two pending beta reads. No progress. 
Currently reading My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, nice thick books that promise another world.
--Begin reading for Rivers of Stone, Book 3. Read Willliam Frush, Overland Journals (1850).
--Marketing: Contact local book club this week.  Work on MailChimp. Added more names to mailling list. Participated on Twitter 3x.

Longwood Gardens (Camp 2014)

Last check in for May? How have we come to this day so quickly? 

See what other ROW80 writers are doing HERE.

Wisteria, Longwood Gardens (Camp 2014)

ROW80 Sunday night check-in

Saturday, I spent the entire day at a quilt workshop, learning how to make quilt squares slant. No pattern. Vivid colors. Quite a challenge and yet, by the end of the day, I had four and a half blocks, 2 houses, a sideways tree, and a star. A friend gave me a few panel pieces that might make a quilt, women dancing barefoot under a bright sun. And so the next project begins.

Free form block (Camp 2014)

Much like writing that begins with a flicker, a bit of dialogue, and suddenly a scene emerges, a character rebels, or an old journal surfaces a line that jangles against a newspaper article, a time in history, a half-forgotten dream.

I have five short books to read, all about the Oregon trail, the Whitman massacre, the early wagon trains setting out overland to California. These borrowed books have been waiting for several months atop one of my bookcases, as I pursued the final editing on Years of Stone. This week, I shall begin.

ROW80 Sunday update and goals for the week ahead:

--Work on book supplements for Years of Stone (afterword, list of characters, map, glossary). Draft blurb for cover. No real progress yet. High priority for the coming week. 
--Post on writing blog 2x, travel blog 1x, ROW80 2x and read minimum 5. OK progress. Posted once on writing blog, 0 on travel blog, made goal for ROW80.
--Write Reflection piece for A to Z challenge. Not yet.

--Read and review 5 ABNA quarter finalists this week. Done.
--Read at least one of two pending beta reads. No progress. Currently reading My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, nice thick books that promise another world.
--Begin reading for Rivers of Stone, Book 3.
--Work on MailChimp. Steady progress. Setting up mail list.

--Hold my breath until May 23 for the Publishers' Weekly review of Years of Stone. Now this last goal (?) was a real challenge, for the review was not positive. Intellectually, I understand the way forward. Emotionally, I'm still grappling with the fallout and wrote about it on my writing blog. For any writer must face down self-doubt as well as negative critiques. And persevere.

Now, if you are so inclined to offer words of encouragement to other participants in A Round of Words in 80 Days, go HERE to see what other ROW80 writers are about this week. And may your own writing and/or reading go well!

Weds check-in: Home again . . .

Got home from Philadelphia and Virginia after midnight on Monday, took another day to adjust to that three-hour time lapse, and now back to work.

Wish I could say the last 10 days have been very productive, but with limited internet access and a family reunion, visits to Longwood Gardens and the University of Pennsylvania Archaeology Museum, and 'the' wedding, I felt lucky to do any editing at all. 

So this check-in will be very short.

LAST WEEK: 
--Finished another round of edits on Years of Stone. Currently thinking about character arcs. Have I got enough emotional intensity that connects my characters? That reveals their conflicts and turmoil? Personally, I tend to be laid back a little or reserved and avoid conflict -- unless I'm directly attacked. So maybe another read through just for this issue.
--Wrote 4 reviews for ABNA quarter finalists.

FOR THE COMING WEEK: --Work on book supplements for Years of Stone (afterword, list of characters, map, glossary). Draft blurb for cover.
--Post on writing blog 2x, travel blog 1x, ROW80 2x and read minimum 5. 
--Write Reflection piece for A to Z challenge.
--Read and review 5 ABNA quarter finalists this week.
--Read at least one of two pending beta reads. Currently reading My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner.
--Master MailChimp.
--Hold my breath until May 23 for the Publishers' Weekly review of Years of Stone.

So we're home, spring is truly here. I'll look for lilacs and dream of these wisteria. May your writing go well.

Wisteria, Longwood Gardens (Camp, May 2014)

Writing question of the day: How do you know when your draft is really complete?

Visit other ROW80 writers HERE.

ROW80: Weds check-in: Between and between

Being on the road has its own rewards: We traveled into the bowl of the high desert country of eastern Oregon, welcomed by clean vistas of yet snow-covered mountains, the Sisters, Three-fingered Jack. We visited the Painted Hills through a shockingly short rainstorm. Pictures do not do justice to these sulpher and rust colored hills, a goldmine of fossils. 

One morning, we watched seven deer pass by our picture window, munching the sparse grass underneath the junipers. 

Mule deer, Redmond (Camp 2014)

And miracle of miracles, I finished that king-sized quilt, hand sewing the binding, stitch by stitch during basketball playoffs, just in time to mail it off before the wedding.

Wedding quilt (Camp 2014)

We drove home in one very long day and now face packing up for the next two-week jaunt to Philly. But, did I get any writing or reading done?

PROGRESS FROM LAST WEEK:  --Continue editing Years of Stone. 4 out of 7 days. Goal met! Now at Chapter 35 out of 55.
--Post on writing blog 2x, travel blog 1x, ROW80 2x and read 10 other bloggers. Lack of internet made this one impossible. Posted Y and Z poems to finish out the A to Z Challenge on my writing blog  -- after we got home.
--Read and review at least one indie writer this week. Finished Robin Cain's wonderful coming-of-age story, The Secret Miss Rabbit Kept. Need to write review. Began Karen Fisher's A Sudden Country, another compelling read.
--Sent article w/photos on quilting on the road & made deadline! 


FOR THE COMING WEEK: 
We're leaving for Philadelphia on Friday. Once again, we may not have access to internet, but I'll do my best to keep editing. Pared down goals:
--Continue editing Years of Stone 4 out of 7 days.
--Maybe post on writing blog 3x, travel blog 1x, ROW80 2x and read minimum 5. 
--Write Reflection piece for A to Z challenge.
--Read and review 5 ABNA quarter finalists this week.
--Read two pending beta reads.

Check in on what other ROW80 writers are doing this week HERE.

May your writing go well. 

May you find good books to read and enjoy every moment of spring!