Exploding Head

Rough weekend for the head. On top of a sinus cold (or allergy stuff?), I had a migraine so bad, it felt like shard of glass were embedded inside my brain, and blood was leaking out of the back of my skull. A couple doses of prescription med failed to knock it out. Thankfully, sleep overnight finally did. I felt one coming on again this afternoon. I took a half Excedrin, a glass of magnesium-infused water, and forced myself to eat a potato for dinner. I don't know if it was one of those or the combo of the three, but something worked, because the pain was aborted. Needless to say...I'm a little (lot) behind on my word count! I'm still waiting for comments on Eaters: Dark Journey to come back from four beta readers. Stay tuned for the excerpt...

ROW80 Round 2 Check In #1

Like last round, my goal will be 500 words a night. I know some nights I'll go over and occasionally I'll take a night off. Technically, I have over 1500 words started on Eaters:Destination with my notes and writing last night, so I guess I've got a good start. I'll be working a little more on character development in this one, since I think that was a weak spot before. I had sacrificed a little in that area for the sake of constant action, and I know that it's possible to have stronger characters reacting to the ever present dangers.

As soon as I get a copy of Eaters: Dark Journey back from one of my beta readers, I'll be posting an excerpt here.

ROW 80--Zombies--Being Human

With life so busy, I hesitated on doing ROW80 again. Lauralynn's nudge to be number 100 to sign up made me cave. Since Eaters: Dark Journey is in the hands of beta readers and almost ready to post, I really do need to get going on the final installment, Eaters: Destination. I got cranking tonight and will report in tomorrow.

Are you still following AMC's The Walking Dead? If you are signed up for their newsletter, they are making a token effort to keep interest up until the series begins again with interviews with cast members and production crew. Like Lost, the quiet vacuum between seasons will probably cause some viewer casualties. I did really like this show and look forward to it beginning again.

In the meantime, my new t.v. love is Being Human on Scyfy. I loved the last episode when Josh said (about Sally), "She looks like The Grudge", when she morphed into evil ghost woman about to attack her murderous husband. The end scene was pretty cheesy, though. Can you say 'plot device'? Spoiler: Sally's door to the Other Side appears and Aidan is suddenly attacked by Bishop crashing through a window. Whatever! The season finale is April 11th. I'll be tuned in and hope for a better cliffhanger than Aidan hanging on for dear 'life' with a wooden stake in his chest. Possibly, Aidan's only chance for survival will be to cave in to Bishop's dark side...or drink werewolf blood?

Draft is Done!!

Finally...whew! Next year, I should remember not to make any promises for finishing anything in the month of March. It's a very busy time at my job, and I often come home and collapse aftwards. Eaters: Dark Journey is almost twice as long as Eaters: The Beginning, so it also took longer to write than the first one.
The rough draft is in the capable hands of my favorite beta readers, and I am anxious to get their feedback and edits. Depending on how long they take, I hope to have it posted online within a week or so. Now, it's time to start on Eaters: Destination. I have some notes already started...and I know how it ends.

Snail's Progress

I'm not 100% sure why I'm stalling so much on the ending of Eaters: Dark Journey. My many theories include: hair-pulling work stress and working on weekends, my main beta reader being out of town, Scott Nicholson's doomsday predictions for indie writers, change of seasons, and the thought that I've just lost some of my momentum. It's quite silly, really. I'm probably just 1,000 words or less shy of the ending and have been for a couple of weeks. Every other night, I manage to pound out a couple of sentences then I fizzle out or decide that I'm brain dead and go to bed. Last Wednesday was the first time that I didn't even check in for ROW80. I'd worked nearly 10 hours that day and just came home and collapsed. Last night, I was determined to make a valiant effort towards wrapping it up, but my head just wouldn't cooperate. I ended up watching The Other Boleyn Sister as I suffered through another migraine. I'm doing okay tonight and hope to make some more progress.

ROW 80 Check In

Not much to report. I had to go in to work for a good part of the day, so it did not turn out to be a writing day, despite the perfect gray and gloomy sky. I'm so close to finishing Eaters: Dark Journey. It's taking much longer than expected to wrap up the exciting, action-packed ending. But...I'm okay with that. I'd rather take a little longer and make it good than try to force it just to get it done. By next week, I'll be sending it to my readers to check for typos with their eyeball microscopes. (Funny. I just misspelled microscopes and had to correct it!  What's happened to my English teacher mother's genes? I used to help her grade papers! Tired fingers, I suppose.)

Late (No...I'm not Pregnant!)

As I was coughing my way through my progress on the postal machine at work the other day and complaining that I'd been sick for weeks, my co-worker asked with a smirk, "Are you pregnant?" I laughed so hard, Zevia soda almost burst up through my nostrils...from the glass I'd had ten days prior. (God bless her for the humor...I needed it at that moment.) I could also use some humor this week, since my bronchitis seems to be relapsing. Apparently, my immune system isn't fond of the all the working out that I've recently returned to. Have I been to the doctor? Hell no. How could I afford the $40 copay plus some useless antibiotics after my health insurance was just raised 40% !!!! That translates into a week of groceries and a tank of gas less per month that I can afford. I don't blame 'Obamacare' (a step in the right direction) or the mandatory maternity coverage required this year for every creature, male or female, from ages 0-109 in my state (stupid!). I blame the for-profit insurance industry and the unchecked monopolies that insurance companies have within many states. Where are the riots in the streets...the marches on Capitol Hill? I told my husband that we could afford a Hummer (or we could at least be stimulating the local economy a lot more instead of sticking to bargain brands and thrift stores)  for what we pay the health insurance company each month. That's the end of my rant for now. If you can commiserate and want to start a torch-led mob with me...let me know.

So...last night I was so bummed about the health insurance sucking away my financial stability and my stressful day at work, that I lay in bed coughing my way through Ghost Hunters and  Face Off on the SyFy channel (zombie makeup!) instead of doing my ROW80 post for Wednesday...or writing.

Bright news though...I was recently contacted by Eloise J. Knapp for an author interview on her blog site called, 'The Zomblog', regarding Eaters: The Beginning. See the interview here: http://eloisejknapp.wordpress.com/. She is the author of The Undead Situation, a novel that I really look forward to reading. Eaters also has new 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon. Apparently, there are still some formatting/typo issues after a couple of re-uploads. I will check into that ...