Monday 18 June Week Ahead and behind

Interesting thing Met Babette at a NJRW meeting. She was a guest on my blog both Friday and Saturday.

Been thinking about what happens when one does the spell and grammar check. What I've found it I write a lot of incomplete sentences and I know that I'm doing this. Sometimes the spell checker marks things that are sentences as phrases. Think about re-writing is the advice. But people don't think in complete sentences and they also don't talk in complete sentences. I push the ignore button a lot. That's my wondering for this week.

Last week I nearly finished the final re-write of The Micro-Manager Murder and I'm very glad it's coming to the end. Not that I don't like the story but the closer I come to the end, the harder a new story pushes to emerge.

This week, I plan to finish the re-write. On the last chapter and then it's time for the check of all the spelling, punctuation and making sure all the loose ends are gathered up and resolved. Found one or two while working on the last chapter. Of course I'll wonder if a story is ever done. Sometimes re-reading books I wrote years ago, I see how far I've come and though tempted I push aside all thoughts of  re-writing them. How I wrote then and how I write now have undergone changes and learning. I'm still learning and hopefully each story will get better and better.

12 December - Week Behind and week ahead, Contest

Contest rules - 27 book giveaway. Print and autographed.
1. Visit the blog.
2. Leave a comment.
3. Leave how you can be reached.
4. If you have one of my books you'd like write it down. No promises since only one of each of my books is being given away.
5. U.S. and Canada only.


Am being pulled between writing and Christmas preparations since I'm being descended upon by a swarm of children and grandchildren. Last week didn't get as much writing done as I wanted but I did manage to get three chapters to the nearly complete. That means there will only be three to do. Then the final two drafts. One of those is the proofing. Must make this story as perfect as I can since little editing will be done.

This week I'll be switching between cleaning, writing and at the end of the week decorating. Love Christmas decorations and they brighten the house so much. Goal is to finish the three chapters of draft 5 and begin draft 6 clearing up all the little bits left over or where I need to look up names or places from the book before.

Do I have a peeve this week. There's the ongoing one about thieves of intellectual property. Bothers me a lot and there doesn't seem to be anything to do to stop these people from taking what they want. Many are in other countries but it's the ones here who really anger me. My feeling is if you can't afford to buy a book and you cn't find it at the library then you shouldn't worry about reading it. There are a lot of books out there. Why do you have to steal and take money from writers. They remind me of cockroaches slithering through the darkness and taking what they want. Enough.