Sunday Update - Week 34

Here we are again at the start of a new month.  Not exactly sure how we got to September already, but here it is.  yay.

I got back to writing yesterday.  I've committed myself to finishing Ugly and the Beast this month.  Have to get 'er done because next month my cover artist will be expecting details so she can create a cover for it.  And I've kinda committed to having it published early next year, so there's that.

I spent the majority of the week polishing Unequal so my AWE doesn't want to beat me with a stick when she opens it up.  Reading through it again, I remember why I love this book and why I'm so anxious to get it out into the world.  Fingers crossed people love it as much as I do.

Not much reading to speak of last week.  A couple books finished and part of another.

No fishing.  Like I said, I was doing book stuff.  Plus, it's the last weekend of the summer, so the area is packed with vacationers indulging in the last hurrah.  Maybe I'll go next week - if I'm on track with my wordcount.

I didn't get a ton of activity done last week either.  5 out of 7 days, but only one of those was the exercise routine.  No weight lost.  And Friday I was a bad bad girl.  I bought KFC and donuts.  First time in 6 months.  The first piece of chicken was like crack.  So good.  And the donut was divine.  I also made cake last week.  Spice Coffee Cake, which is awesome with a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice cream.  I predict I will be exercising a lot next week.

I was supposed to have some work to do for the pay-job, but the mail got lost somewhere.  I'm supposed to be getting another packet tomorrow.  Good lord willin' and the temp mail chick don't drop it somewhere along the way.

Okay, that's about it for me.  Did you do anything worth talking about last week?  Anything to hurrah over?  Talk to me, people.

Time Off? Piffle.

So, as you may have heard, Sleeping Ugly went live Saturday night.  Sunday I was a total toad.  I couldn't have looked at another fictional word if my life depended on it.  And I proclaimed to Hubs that I was taking a day off. 

To which he replied, "A day?  You should take the next two weeks off."

Which would be lovely, except I can't.  I have a book due to the editor on September 1st and I want to scrub it up a little before I sent it to her.  That's less than two weeks.  Nope, no time for days off right now.

Hell, I took almost the entirely month of June off.  And that was the month I was supposed to be writing the first draft of Ugly and the Beast. 

Speaking of which, I'm committing to writing that first draft next month.  Kind of a NaNoWriMo in September.  I'll send Unequal off to the editor and get my buns in gear.  I'd be putting out UatB if I hadn't taken June off.  Instead, UEQ is next and UatB will be early next year. 

This is what comes of taking time off, doncha know.  Schedule shuffling and having to bust several humps to get things done that should already be done. 

I took time off.  Now I'm paying the piper for it.  Derp.

So, Sunday was my day off.  And that's okay.  It's not like I work 8 hour days anyway.  Of course, when I'm trying to meet a deadline, an 8 hour day isn't unheard of... :cough: this past Friday :cough:  And working a few hours every day for weeks on end isn't either.  Any time between 5am and 9pm, 7 days a week, I might be found working on something - writing, editing, marketing, accounting...  It's all part of the business.  We writers don't have normal schedules, eh?

What's your schedule like?  (Don't answer that, Silver, LOL. Your schedule makes me tired just thinking about it.)  Do you take 'time off', as in days at a time?  Or do you catch a few hours here and there when you can?

Sunday Update - Week Whatever

It was a whatever kind of week.

Wrote about a thousand words on Ugly and the Beast.

Touched base with my AWE and got Unequal on the schedule for editing.  It'll go to her on Sept 1st, which leaves September for writing new words on UatB.  It will be my PerNoWriMo. (Personal Novel Writing Month - in which I shall write the remainder of this book which should be about 50K words.  Good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.)   Which means, I hope, that Unequal will be out sometime Nov/Dec, and UatB will be out in Feb(?). 

I barely got any reading done.  (See yesterday's Reading Wrap-up.)

I did get my edits back for Sleeping Ugly.  I'm cracking as much as I can on those.

I went fishing.  Caught a bass.  See Thursday's post for more info on that.

See?  Kind of whatever.  Why?  Because early in the week, I pulled a muscle in my back and then I aggravated it reaching for juice on the bottom shelf, way in the back of the bottom shelf as a matter of fact, at Wallyworld.  So, for the most part, I've been sitting in my recliner, watching TV.  Can't read because staring down at a book makes the back thing worse. Oh, it's better than it was.  A little bit every day.  Well, except for that juice incident - which I admit was really stupid.  I should've called an employee over to get those for me.  But no, I had to do it myself.  Bleh.

This also means that I only exercised 2 out of 7 days - Sunday and Monday.  Three if you count fishing on Tuesday which was mostly sitting, so it probably shouldn't really count.  I had lost another 2/10ths of a pound, but I probably gained that back with 5 straight days of sitting on my ass.

Oh, and today is my daughter's 25th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Ki.  Have a great one!  And remember, no matter how old you get, you'll always be my KD Kitten.  ;o)

How was your week?

Getting Back to Work

I promised myself that once I got the kid off to school, I'd get back to work.  Umm, it didn't happen on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  (Other than sending notes on another writer's work, that is.)  I'm not flagellating myself over the lapse yet.  Instead I sat down this evening and worked up a general schedule for myself.

(Subject to change as needed, of course.)

Wake up - When Hubs leaves for work = online stuff (ie blogs, FB, Twitter, etc.)
Hubs Leaving - 10am = personal stuff (errands, phone calls, cleaning, etc.)
10 - Hubs home for lunch = rewriting UEQ
Lunch
Hubs back to work until 2pm = research, catch up, miscellaneous writerly stuff
2-4pm = TV time (Okay, who am I kidding?  This is my Grey's Anatomy time.)
4-Hubs home = beta reading, critiquing for others
Hubs home - 7pm = dinner, relax time, dishes
7pm-9pm = editing on Djinnocide (depending on crit notes) or new words on another project

This will be solid, but fluid - like jello.  If I need to slip something in somewhere, I've got time.  Or if my personal junk takes less time, I can slide some more writing time in.  The idea is to get at least two hours of writerly stuff in before lunch and another 2 hrs in before bed - with at least an hour to take care of my crit commitments - every day but Sunday.  Then I've got Sunday to catch up or get ahead as needed.  4 hrs a day 6 days a week.  Doable.  Totally.

We'll see if my expectations meet with reality or if they collide in some writerly train wreck.  Keep your fingers crossed.