A Novel Approach

Our New (Still pending) Arrival Only a week to go until Son number two should make an appearance. If he has his Grannies timekeeping skills, we'll see him sometime in July! Things feel a lot more relaxed this time around, all our bags are packed and in the car; the car seat is in ready and MP3s loaded on to the generic MP3 player, hospital on speed dial. Son number one said baby this morning and pointed at mummy's tummy. Well he's not quite two, but knows where the new baby is at least. We've got his present from his new brother to wrap and put in the car yet, so he doesn't feel pushed out when his little bro starts getting lots of mummy's attention. Book Progress I'm up to 46,472 words as of today! We had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, even though the weather forecast was for rain and clouds, we actually had lots of sunshine and a bit of a sprinkling here and there. I managed to finish a chapter or two and evolved a big part of the plot, so am happy.

My week is never complete without a random bot trying to get into my pants on Skype. It amuses me to see how unsophisticated they really are and I often have a "Chat" with them. You never know, the guy who writes the scripts for the bot may actually go through a few and read them. Here's the transcript from this mornings bit of fun: [07:57:24] pink.chapstick93: Hello! Please add me to your Contact list. [10:55:03] BeakZ: Why? [10:55:33] pink.chapstick93: Yay someone to speak to :) !! how r you?    [10:55:44] BeakZ: Do I know you? [10:56:14] pink.chapstick93: I'm awesome  thanks for chattin with me I found your name in the online members search :) what u up to? [10:56:31] BeakZ: Oh god here we go again. Another sex-bot selling services [10:56:49] pink.chapstick93: Ok, now you really lost me?? bot??? [10:57:07] BeakZ: Oh the standard "What is a bot?" Bot reply [10:57:39] pink.chapstick93: I'm not too into exchanging pics .. I'd much rather

If the weather reports on the BBC had been more accurate, I would have been outside more this weekend. As it happens, the forecast was for rain, our outdoor plans changed, so had time to write more than usual. The climb to 50,000 words is feeling like a mountain at the moment, but I have a history of getting over the virtual "hill" and then being even more productive.  So here's hoping the trend continues! Here's an updated chart with the current word count. I've also added the "Change" in red so you can see the words written on each interval. Note: The same day appears more than once, that's just when I've submitted a revision twice in one day (paranoia anyone?).

... that is all. Oh and a big f**k yeah!

Woo hoo!  It feels like something is really happening now. I know, I know, I've got to finish the manuscript first, but to have the support as a first time author really does feel like a warm comfortable blanket wrapped around me. I'll post more details as the process continues, I think it's worth sharing the pitfalls and rewards as a first time author.

Well, it looks like taking two days off work to get on with the book worked. Is 8,000 words in two days good? Wednesday I didn't get the early starts I was hoping for. Up at 6am with the little man, childcare by 8am, had to tackle the lawns, done by 10am. A lot of today was spent talking out loud to myself, going over the plot and interactions of my characters. A whiteboard helped! Turns out, I had a couple of issues with where characters were going and that took a few hours to work out. I think I have a more cohesive flow of plot devices and stories now. Time will tell. Thursday Again, didn't start as early as planned. Had to take our dog to the vets for a check up after her knee surgery, so managed to get a bit done from 0800 to 0830, but didn't get cracking properly until 0930. Still, better than yesterday! The words seemed to flow easier today, the conversation with myself yesterday certainly helped things along a huge amount. Tip of the day I was strugg