Better Late...

Is it Monday already? I got the 1-2-3 punch from a migraine again last night, so I am late checking in for ROW80. Since last check-in I've done 500, 200, 600, and 900 words/night.
 Thank you, Lauralynn for the very nice post on life's curve balls and finding ways to anticipate them and get around them. (I can almost picture you on the writer's field...pom poms in hand. The fans in the stadium waving their pens and laptops!) It's so wonderful to have the support when friends and family members don't always "get" what all this obsession about writing is about. Honey...I'm not ignoring you...I'm not being a hermit (well, sometimes I am)...I'm actually WORKING when I'm up here typing. It's a passion. It's what I do. I can't not do it. Also...when I have my nose in a book...that's RESEARCH. Very important stuff...yes...even when it's the latest Stephen King novel...or yesterday's newspaper. So, this brings up the question...does your spouse and/or family support your writing? I'm not saying that mine doesn't, but I don't think they understand that stories have to simmer in the juice of quiet and solitude. In a busy, crazy house with lots of activity, it's often hard to carve that time out. Thus...I write at such late hours most of the time.

Wuz Up Blogspot??? and Scary Gary

Blogspot has apparently been having some technical difficulties. I was unable to log in at all yesterday, and the night before that I could not add a comment. Obviously, I got in tonight, but the login was still a little odd. Yesterday, I found a tech site where a lot of Blogspot users listed the same problems. Whatever happened, I hope it's permanently fixed.

So...here's my late check-in for ROW80. Monday - 1427 words. Tuesday - 643 words. Wednesday -  500 words. Cheryl and Aidan are cruising into new trouble in Eaters: Destination.

I only read the comics in the paper each day for 'Scary Gary'. This week in monsterland, it's all about ZOMBIES.

Never Count Your Chickens...

A late check-in:
Yesterday, I sat down to write early and mentioned on Lauralynn's blog that I was going to get a good word count in. Mother Nature must have heard me and said "Oh, really?", because a few minutes after that the gloomy skies parted into brilliant sunshine and my family and neighbors beckoned me outside. 'Just a few minutes' suddenly turned into dinner, dishes, and a migraine. Tonight, it's been a long 12+ hour day after work and a family event to attend. Whew! Sometimes, I don't like checking in and just listing my excuses. There is good news though. I'm about 10K into Eaters: Destination, and I've written about 1300 words since last check in. I'm working on it each night as I can...

CDC Posts "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse"

In order to raise more interest for survival preparation, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has posted Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse. Supposedly, there were 25,000 viewers for this post on the first day it was up, and it crashed the site. I was finally able to get on it tonight after trying several times yesterday. It's interesting that they used the same photo that I did for the top of the Eaters: Dark Journey cover. It's good to know that our government is spreading the word about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse!
Are you ready?

How to Skin a Rabbit and Necrotic Tissue

Actual numbers to report tonight. My word counts for the last three days are 557, 524, and 528. If it keeps raining tomorrow, I'll have a big cup of hot tea (or a few) and rack up a bigger number. It's funny what odd research roads my stories take me down. Yesterday, I looked up how to skin a rabbit and 'necrotic tissue'.

ROW 80 Midway? Where Does the Time Go?

I can't believe it's the midpoint! Tsk...tsk. I certainly haven't been making my 500 words/night goal. Details can be found in previous whines (posts). This morning, I had big plans of getting up and writing for a couple of hours before even touching the Sunday paper, but God (or the devil) had other plans for me. I think today was the true 'Friday the 13th'. 
Reason #1 - I woke up feeling like a semi truck had rolled over my head in the middle of the night. The migraines that have been stewing all night are the worst. They have time to simmer and build to maximum pain, so when you wake up...the medicine doesn't kick in easily. I lost most of the day to this one. It was early evening before I felt somewhat normal again. Was there MSG in the Asian salad dressing from the restaurant last night? Inquiring pain-filled brains want to know.
Reason #2 - After stumbling downstairs to make the coffee, hoping the caffeine would help jumpstart the med, one of my cats puked in my kidling's book bag. Seriously...IN THE BOOK BAG. Why was her little furry head even in it? Teachers may not believe 'my dog ate my homework' any more, but will they believe 'my cat puked on my homework'? That was a fun clean up job.
Reason #3 - The other two cats were outside at this point when DH pointed out that one of them had caught a bird--a fledgling sparrow. DH brought it inside. It was a little freaked out, but seemed to be fine. This caused more stress to my woeful head. I've had no luck keeping baby birds alive. We ended up releasing it and forcing all cats to stay inside for the rest of the day. Hopefully, it's parents will come back for it. They were flying around scolding the two cats looking out the window.

I finally got DH to watch Shaun of the Dead with me late last night. He groaned when I suggested it, but he stayed awake through the whole thing and laughed more than once. (Zombie fans can be made!)

So I Lied...(to myself) LOL

Yeah...I'm gonna stick to a 'set in stone' schedule...NOT. Why do I promise myself such things? Getting up early--not an option so far. Staying up late? That still works better for my dark brain. Who can write about zombies at 5am? It was such a damp and gloomy day today; it definitely put me in the mood to get back into the story. I have to wonder how much more writing I'd get done if I lived somewhere like Seattle. Seasons seem to make a difference too. My attention span for writing in spring is sporadic. During the dog days of summer, I just want to hole up in a cool room and read ghost stories. (It gets too hot in the house to sit and sweat at a computer too.) When autumn comes, I get supercharged for writing. In winter, I'm fairly steady. Does anyone else find the seasons affecting them like that? I've been a good girl tonight. 500 words down...and more go before I hit the hay.

ROW 80 - Summer Distractions

Kait Nolan asked how the ROW80 participants are doing with summer distractions upon us. They're already here for me thanks to a gorgeous sunny weekend, and I definitely need a plan. Today, was Mother's Day. After sleeping in late, reading the newspaper, and getting in my workout, I succumbed to the lure of blood red and poppy-colored geraniums, brilliant gold marigolds, and silvery dusty miller. Darn you, Home Depot and your rainbow of seduction! I spent most of the day after that running around like a crazed rat in the garden, ticking off just a few of the gazillion chores to be done in May. I topped the day off by gorging on a delicious Thai dish with my family at a local restaurant. Needless to say, I'm exhausted, still very full, and perhaps a little bit sun burnt.

I still haven't decided if I need to work the late evening or early morning writing angle. I'm really leaning towards getting my butt out of bed early, so I don't feel anxiety all day about getting my word count in late at night (which often doesn't happen). With summer weather giving me a boost of energy, I think I can do this. Tonight...I write. Wednesday I'll report how early a.m. writing went for the first few days.

Time to Re-think Writing Schedule

So here it is...10:19 p.m. I sat down at the computer about half an hour ago, read emails, glanced at some of the blogs I follow...and STILL HAVEN'T WRITTEN A SINGLE WORD (on Eaters: Destination). This is a pretty typical evening. Since I'm more of a night owl than a morning person and my schedule is so busy with work and trying to whip my body in shape for summer...I've always put off the writing until late in the evening. And sometimes...yawn...I'm too tired to even start by then. So, I'm going to have to issue myself an ultimatum. Either, I yank my cranky butt out of bed and write from 5-7am or I have myself a late cup of coffee and do it 10pm-12am. Last night, I tried the late thing and managed to rework the beginning of the story and add 200 words, but doing that sporadically is a far cry from my 500/day word count (1,000 in my insane perfect little world). So...what's the new schedule going to be? I'm going to have to sleep on it. Tonight, I'm going to dig in and stay up late to get my 500 words. (Note: It doesn't take 2 hours to write that little...but I'm including time in those 2 hour periods for warming up the 'ole computer, paying attention to demanding felines, dealing with a wandering mind, allowing for research time, etc.)

Eaters: Dark Journey Now on Smashwords

Eaters: Dark Journey is now available on Smashwords and was just submitted to Amazon. I feel both glorious and drained after publishing a new work. It's from all of those end game fingernail-biting hours where I poured over the text to make sure that I got the typos corrected that were pointed out by my beta readers and making sure that I haven't missed something important in the flow of the story. (Thank you so much Lauralynn for all your help!)

Needless to say, I am WAY BEHIND on where I thought I'd be by now on the third novella in this series. Maybe now that Eaters: Dark Journey is finally published, I can give Eaters: Destination my undivided attention.

Another writer (Sorry...can't remember who. Was it Kait Nolan or Zoe Winters?) recently commented that she has theme songs for her novels. For Eaters, mine is "Far From Home" by Five Finger Death Punch. I can't get it out of my head. I love it...but it's driving me crazy! In my mind-movie that song is playing in the background as Cheryl is on the motorcycle, holding on tight to Aidan, and they are driving down a winding mountain road, unsure of their destination or future.