book 3 progress

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TOATM Update – September 16

Editing and first round of proofreading are complete. The final draft is in my formatter’s inbox. I’ll probably see first drafts from him in about a week, along with the artwork for the back cover and spine.

And here’s something awesome yet terrifying: I wrote the first two paragraphs of book 4.

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete (161,377 words)
Professional editing: Complete
Proofreading: Complete
Formatting: Starting very soon
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: 50% complete, remaining half starting soon

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TOATM Update – July 20

First round of edits are back from my editor. I just got through three chapters in about an hour. I’d say it’s going pretty quick. Three chapters in one hour, 55 chapters total…somebody do the math for me, my brain’s had it for today.

The back cover blurb is just about finalized, which means in a couple days I can get everything submitted to my cover artist for him to get started. Yep, we’re getting that close. :)

TOATM is now up on Goodreads for anyone who wants to add it.

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete (161,377 words)
Professional editing: In progress
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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TOATM Update – July 3

So, there’s this thing called strep throat. If you haven’t had it, you’ve probably heard from people who had it as a child, and they’ve told you it was horrible. You can sympathize, but just partially, because everything in childhood occurs from a different perspective. The basement of your childhood home? HUGE. (But have you seen it lately? It’s not.) Dairy Queen dip cones were SO GOOD. (Try one as an adult. Meh.) And riding your bike to the end of the street? It was a country away. You’d need to pack a lunch.

Let me tell you this. There is nothing different about the perspective when it comes to strep throat. It’s horrible. It’s a 104.8 temperature while dosed up with ibuprofen horrible. It’s forgetting to water your flowers for 3 days so they almost die in July heat horrible. It’s sleeping all day, and all night, and still being corpse-tired. It’s forcing yourself to drink water because you know you have to but your stomach is coming up your throat.

And it’s not so much about the throat. Maybe a little at first. But then the rest of it kicks in–I don’t even know what to call “it”–and you’ll be sweating and shivering and forget your name for three days until you somehow make it to a person who can hand you some amoxicillin.

I guess that’s the tl;dr way of admitting I haven’t touched TOATM for a good week.

My hardcopy has been sitting like this:

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My laptop has been sitting like this:

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And I’ve been in a strange land far away, safe from harassment by fictional characters.

I have less than two weeks before this draft is due to my editor. And to be honest, the last time I sat down to work, I had this feeling: I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can do with this.

So in honor of my fever/amoxicillin delirium, I call this draft finished.

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete! (161,377 words)
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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TOATM Update – First Draft Complete

I wrote the last lines of THE OAK AND THE MOON last night just before midnight. Fifty-five chapters, one epilogue, and 160,627 words. This first draft is the longest one yet. I start my edits immediately–or, I should say, I resume my edits. I’ve already edited the first 128,463 words. They’re ready for my editor. The remaining 32,164 should be a breeze due to the care I took with the initial writing.

For the past couple weeks I’ve been sifting through five and a half years’ worth of notes. Most were used. Some were discarded. Others were saved for books 4 and 5.

And you won’t believe this: only ONE F-bomb. Hard to believe, I know. But you’ll understand why when you read it. You’ll also understand why this book is so long. More on that later. :)

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete! (160,627 words)
My revisions: In progress (79% complete)
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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TOATM Update – April 26

First draft of THE OAK AND THE MOON is sooo close to being finished. I’m thinking three more chapters will do it, maybe four. I won’t waste time blabbing about it when I could be finishing it, so here’s a quick status. Now I’m off to write the end of this thing.

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: In progress (151,178 words and counting)
My revisions: In progress
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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TOATM Update – February 15

IMG_9373Fifteen degrees Fahrenheit last night with 20 mph gusts of wind. Here’s where I was, working on THE OAK AND THE MOON.

It was more of a wrap-my-head-around-it session than a get-words-on-the-page session, but I got back in the forward motion of it right before I started nodding off. It should be easy to pick back up tonight and get a lot down on the page.

I bought myself a present yesterday. Sometimes you’ve just gotta splurge on the hardback.

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Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: In progress (125,282 words and counting)
My revisions: In progress
Professional editing: Not started
Final Draft: Getting there slowly…
Proofreading: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Cover art: Not started

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1744 More Words, Barefoot

All day Monday was spent writing—in pink fuzzy socks, not barefoot like the title suggests—and I’m 1,744 words closer to the end. Not a big number for an entire day of work, but I’ll take it. I’m finally past a scene I was dreading and I’m proud to say I DID NOT CRY while writing it. Nope, I didn’t. NOPE! MY EYES DID NOT DAMPEN ANY MORE THAN USUAL EVERYDAY DAMPNESS AND THAT IS MY FINAL WORD.

I’ve started the read-aloud edit phase from page one during my weekday commute, so I’m both writing the end and editing the beginning now which is a great use of time but also kind of scrambling my brains. A once-a-week night off from books helps, especially when I’m lucky to see yet another great movie…
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My husband briefed me on Barefoot, and at first I said, “Sounds really Manic Pixie Dream Girl tropey. Pass.” But as he scrolled past it online, I caught the words “bad boy” and I was like, “Wait, bad boy? Okay, sold.” LOL

Usually the MPDG trope is used alongside a geeky, stuffy, downer of a hero, with the MPDG heroine’s one and only dimension being used to teach the hero how to lighten up and live again. A “Wish Fulfillment from stir-crazy writers” as the article says. Add a bad boy though, and it changes the formula. (And who can turn down a bad boy hero? I mean really.) Barefoot might have contained hints of the MPDG trope, but the heroine was fleshed out enough to make it mostly disappear. The reasons for her MPDG qualities made sense to *her* story, so she became a real character to root for and not just a stand-in for a trope or a convenient motivator for the hero. Reviewers say it’s a knock-off of Tangled (another slight MPDG done well enough to avoid being tropey, in my opinion). I see that now, but I didn’t while watching it.

Another well-written, believable love story. Sweet but not cheesy, unpredictable enough to keep my interest. Good writing, good acting, good everything. Maybe not as good as In Your Eyes, but good enough to recommend.