Category: Favorite Posts

  • NEW SECRET BIG COURSE: Lesson 15 is Started. And finished.

    NEW SECRET BIG COURSE: Lesson 15 is Started. And finished.

    Sat down. Wrote. I knew what I wanted, I knew what I needed… And I love it when a plan comes together. Damn! Granted, I’m out of bed at 6 AM, and hauling ass for five straight hours on just this one thing, so this project is NOT coming together out of magic and fairy…

  • Ohio 3 goes dark — 1331 words and an unexpected callback

    Ohio 3 goes dark — 1331 words and an unexpected callback

    And darker yet. My MC had one of those “best news in the world, worse news in the world” days today. And while she had the last part of truly wonderful news, I got a big chunk of writing to finish up Chapter 3 and got 729 words into Chapter 4 before I managed to…

  • Civilization Versus The Full-Body For-Keepsies Panty Raid… and The Survival Value of ADD

    Civilization Versus The Full-Body For-Keepsies Panty Raid… and The Survival Value of ADD

    When I was a kid and my family lived on the western tundra of Alaska, my dad took me hunting and fishing with him. We were bringing in food for the table in a place where agriculture was impossible. I loved tagging along and helping out. I was nine, so for hunting I was just…

  • Revelation Struck!!!

    Revelation Struck!!!

    You grind. You dig. You read with increasing despair through a manuscript that seemed while you were writing it like a thing of wonder. You wonder how you could have gone so far off the mark. And you think, “How did I think this was going to work?” and consider the possibility that you’re going…

  • FINISHED BOOK FIVE OF THE OHIO SERIES!!!

    FINISHED BOOK FIVE OF THE OHIO SERIES!!!

    No, I didn’t plan this. I thought I had another three weeks of writing to hit the end. Yesterday, I was galloping along, and I’d planned to pick up today with the logical continuation of the scene I wrote yesterday, where my characters were in trouble… And when I loped back into the office this…

  • 1250 Words on Ohio Five… and making myself cry. A LOT…

    1250 Words on Ohio Five… and making myself cry. A LOT…

    I had no idea the events I wrote today were going to happen. None. What I had planned was entirely different, and pretty good. But this was… So… Much… Better… My eyes are red, I’ve had to stop several times to go walk around in the kitchen and mutter to myself, and here’s the thing.…

  • OHIO #4: GOT ‘EM! 2110 words… and sheer joy!

    OHIO #4: GOT ‘EM! 2110 words… and sheer joy!

    Fun, fun writing.  It flew, and I made myself laugh. I’m not done with the novel yet, but I’m done for today. I left things hanging, but I wrote considerably more than my 1250 words goal. Now I have to go work on the website. Monday, I get to come back to this, and to…

  • I know how Book 4 ends!!! And will probably finish the novel TODAY!

    I know how Book 4 ends!!! And will probably finish the novel TODAY!

    I woke up this morning knowing the ending. As has happened sometimes in the past with novels, it was just there, something my brain figured out while my body was asleep, and dumped into the hopper for me to see when I woke up. So TODAY, I need to dump about 1200-1400 words that went in…

  • Wow! WOW! A character gamble and last week’s wandering PAID OFF!

    Wow! WOW! A character gamble and last week’s wandering PAID OFF!

    I was LOST.  Gut said to shut up and keep going. And I spent a lot of time today fiddling with the outline, and trying to understand what the stuff I wrote last week meant… And then, HOLY CRAP!!! Someone I never expected showed up at my MC’s door, and was the person who gave…

  • Getting ready to start the Line-For-Scene Outline of Ohio 4

    Getting ready to start the Line-For-Scene Outline of Ohio 4

    In the little image above, you can see the blue-outlined box with OH-3 CUR1stD in the middle. Below it, a gray box with a blue text icon and Ohio #1-4. Enigmatic, maybe, and not very informative. Until you see them in context and understand what a big deal this is. If you’re a non-nerd reader…