ROW80: Sleepy Weds.

It's nearly 11 pm, and I'm yawning as I write this, but I'm determined to post this Weds. check-in.

Progress on ROW80 so far this week:

• WRITING: 1,252 new words out of 2,500 for the week. Worked 2 hours on plot summary. Didn't like the male leaping to the rescue all the time, so switched genders. Now the archivist is a male, and the art crimes cop is a female. Interesting how my thinking about their personalities changed -- once those genders changed! Finally decided on their names. Fooled around with Pinterest, setting up a board for The Seventh Tapestry. This was fun. You can look at the images here. Didn't blog on the writing blog yet this week.

• COMMUNITY: Only read/commented on 2 ROW80 posts. Really wanted to post snippet for Wednesday's WIPpet, but I'm not exactly writing scenes yet. Attended a poetry reading (and got to read two poems). What a wonderful evening of diverse voices. Still prepping for next week's presentation on audiobooks (research, research!).

• READING: James Scott Bell, Just Write. Still on Chapter 1 but enjoying the exercises. Perhaps the most useful this week was analyzing a few of my own past major failures to discover what the 'transformative moment' was, how and what I learned. Thinking this way, suggests Bell, brings us closer to understanding [and writing about] our characters -- their internal dynamics, external challenges, and emotional life. Bell, in this first chapter, also talks about meeting reader expectations. After reading Bell, I'm a little less forgiving as a reader, because I want to immerse myself in that story. Belonging to BookBub's daily e-mails is rather like a daily chocolate, almost impossible to resist. This week's download, Jeff Carson's Alive and Killing 😊 pulled me in from page 1. A father and son out camping are surprised (and shot at) by mysterious men on the trail. Today's mail also brought Asa Maria Bradley's Viking Warrior Rising. How could I not care about the main character and not want to know more after reading her first sentence? That's my goal!

Naya's hands shook as she clipped the last alligator clamp over the electrical wires, short-circuiting the power and the security alarm. "Get it together," she muttered to herself.

• MARKETING. Messed around a little to set up an account with SOUNDCLOUD, a place to upload PODCASTS (just sound), another goal of mine [someday]. Youtube is sound + video. Does anyone else check Kindle sales? I'm always thrilled when someone buys a book -- like today! Still at the very beginning of planning my launch party. Much more work needed here.

And that's all, folks. Check out what other ROW80 writers are up to, either on the FACEBOOK group or our WEBSITE. Thank you, Eden Mabee and Shan Jeniah! Have a great week, everyone.

Spring flowers are slow to pop out this year. Here
are last April's hyacinths!