Wynderlon

Around midnight last night I finished the last bit of revision. I had been typing for so long that my arm ached, but when I finally saved the COMPLETED word doc of The Blood Queen, I danced around the apartment in triumph.

I’m pretty sure it nearly killed me. I spent most of this morning and early afternoon recovering from multiple sleepless nights desperately trying to finish the manuscript ready for beta reading. Why? Because I have so much else to do and if I didn’t finish the manuscript by early this week, I didn’t know when I’d get the time again.

However, I’m victorious! And while about two weeks later than I said I’d get it done, I still managed to finish it! Now it’s on to my next major project to complete before August (I hope there’s no more late nights ahead *sigh* I have to get in practice of waking up way too early for anyone who is a Night Owl): finishing my unit planning.

This little prose has no story attached to it, I don’t know why it jumped into my head (probably because I’ve lived and breathed editing for the past week and I feel my sanity slowly slipping), but I decided to capture it anyway:

This is a pirate story, and don’t let anyone else tell you different. It all started on a boat…
“This, madam,” the first mate said, “is the HMS Hawk. It is a schooner, not just ‘a boat.’”
I rolled my eyes. Where did I find people like this? And why couldn’t I leave things well enough alone? “So it’s a sailboat, then?”

Yeah, random, but given a few seconds I could come up with characters, which is just a short hop away from “workable, beginning plot ideas.” So I’d better back off now before I start naming the first mate (Timothy) or figuring out the setting (steampunk alt. world)…

Argh! I’m doing it already! Run! Run while you can!

So, I was explaining to John the extensive list of edits on The Blood Queen I’ve made so far, most of which he replied with “uh huh.” He hasn’t read the book yet, and only knows that it’s an urban fantasy and there’s vampires. Anyway, I went down the long list and at the end, I said:

“Oh, and I edited the sex scene a little…just edited, though. I didn’t try to increase the length or anything!” Eh? Get it? Get it? *elbow nudge* (John’s reply was to groan and say, “I didn’t hear that.” Never did appreciate a good pun.)

I’m still snickering. I don’t care, I think I’m funny.

Ugh, I’ve been so unproductive over July 4th weekend that I’m dreading my work load over the next few days. I just have so much to do! I’m exhausted too; didn’t sleep a wink last night. I’m so exhausted that it took me two attempts to sing the “ABC” song to figure out where “V” is on the alphabet. Yeah, I felt dumb. The first time I skipped “R” and had to slow down so my befuddled, sleep deprived, caffeine starved brain could keep up.

I spent a good portion of the day having lunch with a friend and then walking around Barnes & Nobles afterwards instead of…you got it, editing. So, now, I’m playing catch-up this evening. I hate editing in the evenings since that’s when John’s home and it’s harder to concentrate with someone else puttering around, especially in an apartment. In the mornings and afternoons, the apartment is blissfully quiet and I can really concentrate (although I often have to leave because while the house is empty, there’s all kinds of things to do there, like catch up on my DVR recordings, clean, my various arts & crafts, reading, playing video games, etc. — just to name a few).

Blah, I can’t even concentrate on this blog post. I’m going to pour myself another cup of raspberry lemonade, read for a little while, then start editing The Blood Queen.

I spent my afternoon at a local coffee shop which is co-owned by a friend of mine and John’s, David2 (since I know so many Davids…). There are definite pluses to knowing someone who co-owns a coffee shop, mostly in the form of a free cup of coffee. I don’t know if I can keep milking this connection of mine, but I intend to go back. The place has huge windows, something I always love, and instead of the usual crowd of loud soccer moms with their frolicking children, there were quiet students. *blissful sigh* This may be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Like the photo? Notice all the red pen and pink highlighter on that page (yes, an actual page from The Blood Queen, in case you were starting to think the book was all in my mind)? Today was a tough day of editing, mostly because I had to rewrite 90% of a scene, which means I got a lot of editing done but not much page count. I’m going to keep going this evening, then end the day with a trip to the gym.

My brain feels pretty mushy right now. Near the end, before I had to pack it in and pick up John, I started getting distracted. Then I noticed the albino pigeon…staring at me through the side door (I was at the table closest to it)…watching. We had a staring contest. I won, a fact I boasted to John through text message.

His answer? “While dubiously impressive, get back to editing.” Ah, now that’s love.

(Tried to take a picture of the pigeon, but it flew away)

Yeah, I’ve been busy. I got a new job, which starts in a month and a few days, so I’m preparing myself for that. I’m also feverishly, fiendishly, desperately trying to meet my deadline for edits with The Blood Queen. I’m sending it to my beta readers (my lovely critique group, as well as some other wonderful volunteer individuals) by July 9th, but that means I’ve got a horrific 35-pages-a-day editing schedule (40 is even better). (Okay, I know some people out there are probably going, “What? 35 pages a day? Does someone want the whaaa-mbulence?” To these people I say…”Want to edit my book for free?” )

Anyway, that is my life in one glorious nutshell. I haven’t done anything really interesting. And besides a terrifying nightmare I had last night that involved a baby doll that came to life and crawled over my face while cooing “Ma-ma, ma-ma” in a creepy little kid’s voice, I have nothing much to report. Hopefully that’ll change in the next few days as my editing starts reaching the hilt. Who knows? Maybe I’ll go crazy and make a blog post where I say “I am a fish” over and over again, or maybe “I am the lizard queen!” Although I think if I’m going to go insane, it’ll probably be around mid-August when the new job “honeymoon period” should wear off.

ANYWAY, since there’s not much to say…have a music video!

I really like this song. And I think I like the music video too. There’s a frenzied feeling to it that I think illustrates what I’m feeling a lot of the time.