still running, not getting anywhere...

I feel like I'm running around achieving nothing at the moment. My time is split between the new house and the old one, and though I'm ringing lots of people and arranging lots of things, some things just don't seem to be getting anywhere. Like Riley 5. I'm still a good 40 pages off finishing the story, and I've only got a few days left before October--and my deadline--have past. Panic time, anyone? We're moving in on the weekend, so I'm hoping that come Monday and Tuesday, I can sit down and actually write. I probably won't have the net connected by then, so that could be a good thing--no distracting emails or websites to visit :)

I keep forgetting to take the camera up with me, so there's no pics of the house as yet. Hopefully I'll remember in the next day or so, because the garden is full of flowers at the moment, and looks absolutely lovely :)

In other writing news, I should have my UK covers and excepts for my Riley books up on my website in the next couple of days--just gotta find the time to do it :). Oh, and for those who signed up for the newsletter, there is one coming in the next couple of weeks. I've started it, just have had the time to finish. But I will be running a newsletter only contest--stay tuned for details :)

today is the day...!

that we pick up the keys to our new house. It's all very exciting--in a terrifying sort of way. I'm excited to be shifting into the new place, with all it's beautiful trees, but at the same time, the fact we haven't sold the old place yet--and therefore have a huge morgage hanging over our heads--is something of a dampener. Still, I can't wait to get into the new house and explore more fully. I'll post some pics over the weekend :)

Writing wise, I'm slowly getting there with this story. I've rolled over the 350 pages mark, and I'm coming to a big fight/flight scene that marks a change in Riley's life. And it's not one she wanted. But that can be said about the end I'm planning for this book, too. I just hope it all works.

In other news, Piatkus sent me the mock-ups of the covers for the UK market, and they look absolutely fabulous. I'll post them to my site as soon as I can :)

slowly, slowly...

Even though I now have a rough outline of where I want to go, it's still been slow progress with this story. It's not zooming along, like I half hoped it would. Still, progress is progress, and I'm not about to complain (well, maybe just a little :)).

Yesterday I wrote a major fight scene, and realised in the middle of it that my original plan to leave Rhoan behind, and just have Riley kidnapped, didn't make sense plot wise. Rhoan would go ape-shit looking for his sister, and it just wasn't logical that he wouldn't find her. Especially when they both have trackers in their ears. So, he's now along for the ride and the Directorate won't realise they're missing for a day or so--by which time, all the action will be over. Another thing I realised as I was writing the fight scene yesterday (yep, the muse was really concentrating on what it was supposed to be doing...Not ;) ) was that this story really hasn't gone deeply into pack history as I'd originally wanted it to. So, that might have to have a resolution in another book.

Anyway, I've crawled up to 333 pages done, and I'm to hit the 340 mark today. It'd be nice if I could get to 360--370 pages done by the end of the week, but the handover date for the new house is this Friday, so I can't see much work happening either Friday or on the weekend. Just lots of exploring :)

finally...

it's been something of a slow few days for writing. Actually, on Sunday and Monday, it was none existant, but that was due to the fact that I had stuff to do, (and stuff to watch... like Bathhurst. Love the big v8's racing around the mountain :)) more than any real avoidence of writing. I think half the problem has been that I just didn't know where this story was going--or how I was going to get to the end. Because I've known how I wanted it to end for a while, but that's been about it. So, on Saturday, after a particularly slow, dragged-out writing day, I decided enough was enough and started plotting my way towards the end. Plotting! Me! Wonders will never cease. Of course, my version of plotting consists of nothing more than bullet points that give me direction. For example, here's part of what I wrote:

-Go to club and sneak into secure area
-Get sprung
-Big fight.
-Gets banged on head and knocked out.
-Wakes on island, in prison.
-Escapes
-Hunted off a cliff.

So as you can see, I'm not heavy on details, but it's enough to get me where I have to go. It's enough for the muse to work on. Hopefully, the writing process will speed up a little now that I have guidelines.

In other news, I'm hoping to get the first chapter excerpts up on my site soon, so keep an eye open for that. And the contest should be up and running in the next couple of days--I just have to find a pic of the beanie bear that's going to be a part of the prizes. Oh, and I'll be running a seperate contest for my newsletter folk to, which will be announced in the upcoming first edition newsletter--coming very soon!

back on track...

well, after good writing days on Sunday and Monday, (10 and 13 pages respectively) I am now officially back on track with my writing target. 290 pages done and dusted, and 110 minimum to write by the end of October. Now all I need to do is try and get ahead, to make up for those days I'm undoubtedly going to miss when we move house. Plot wise, this novel is still paddling along. I'm not a plotter, I'm a pantzer, so every page is a new experience for me--and sometimes a terrifying one, especially when the words aren't coming and I'm sitting here staring at a blank screen wondering what the heck I'm going to write next. That happened yesterday--and I ended up taking some of my own, oft-given advice. When in doubt, blow something up or shoot someone. And while that doesn't have to be literal, in this case it was. And it's actually been good, because it's now given me ideas--and reasons--for why the ending scene happens as it does (sorry, can't say anything more without giving spoilers!)

In other, non-writing related news, Pete and I bought a combined record player/cd recorder yesterday, so we can finally start transfering some of the great old vinyl records we have onto cd. We have, between us, something like 250 old vinyl records, and some of them are just impossible to get on cd these days. And they're great records--some classics, some one hit wonders, some just good old fashioned decent music. At least this way we'll be able to listen to them again--and we'll have the option of either listening via the record player or cd. Yay!

minus 13...

I'd set myself a writing target at the beginning of September and, as could have been predicted, I didn't get there. I never do when I set targets. Seems my muse is a nasty little soul who loves to trip me over. Still, I got close. My target was 280 pages written, and I hit 267, so I was only 13 pages off. I did manage to write ten pages yesterday, so if I can write 8 today I'll actually be back on track. Mind you, I'd love to be ahead of the game right now, because we move into our new house in two and a half weeks, and I just can't imagine getting much writing done during those days.

Another thing that has me worried is the actual length of the book. While I usually start having this worry around the 300 page mark in any book I'm writing, in Riley 5 I've actually just finalised one major murder thread, and only have one more to go. And I'm just not sure whether that one will stretch the 140 pages needed. Still, this is only first draft, and I'm sure I'll need to flesh some sections out more. I just need to finish it first...anything else can be fixed later.