Ouch

Nope, my log line didn't make it to the top 9 that were picked for the Editor Pitch for Silhouette Desire and it hurts.

Real bad.

Wow, losing based on the log line is making me feel so crushed, then Kudos to those who persevere rejection after rejection till they sell.

I guess I better be prepared.

It ain't gonna be a smooth ride.

Done

My first draft for the manuscript for the Desire pitch is finally done. I forced myself to write the last few thousand words. Every word felt like drawing blood from a stone, and the last chapter is utterly crappy with she said, he said, but it's done.

Now I can travel in peace (oh, did I say peace- 24 hour journey with a toddler, yeah, right?) and will revisit the manuscript again on Thursday or Friday when I've had a couple of nights of sleep after reaching India.

This being the third MS I finished, I should feel quite happy with myself but I'm not. I think it's because it's a very rough draft and needs a lot of work.

The log line for the contest is ready but will submit it once I'm on the other side of the Atlantic. It's going to be so hard to open a laptop and work again with family, food (Yes, I have to decided to bilge as I feel quite deprived of good food) and shopping for my sister's wedding on my mind constantly( and not necessarily in that order) but having finished the WIP, I have to give my all to shaping it up into something decent that an editor will want to see.

Excited!

I'm very excited as I will be going to watch StarTrek later today with a friend.

DH and I used to go to the theatre and watch a lot before toddler girl was born. DVDs are fun and everything but some movies, you have to watch on the big screen.

For a while there, we had even taken to watch some of them seperately, him with his buddies because it was the only way we could go to the movies with our baby girl, although we risked Indiana Jones flick with her.

And me, sometimes even alone because most of my friends don't go to the theatre and the few that do, our schedules never seem to match. I watched Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix by myself because DH was out of country at that time and I wanted to watch it the first day. (I will definetely not have to watch the upcoming installment of Harry Potter by myself because I will be in India and my brother is a big fan too. Woohoo!!)

And then, I went to Dark Knight by myself when DH offered to take care of the baby.

Now, after working hard the past one month, I felt like I needed a reward. Yes, other than the shopping for my trip and when the topic of movies came up at a get together with a lady of my acquintaince, I made plans to go see the movie with her.

Now, you might say, why is this of such importance?

Because, I never do that. I have changed over the past few years into a sort of a reserved person and my writing, I think, makes me even more isolated. No, I don't mean that I've become an antisocial creature. But I have taken to doing most stuff by myself.

Yes, self-sufficiency is a very desirable quality in my opinion, but not to the extent that I forget how much fun it can be to do stuff with other likeminded people. Although, I have to admit it is very hard to find likeminded people when you're in your late twenties rather than in teens.

So, hopefully this would be a step towards not becoming a recluse.

Well, this blog has to have its use of sometimes being cheap therapy too.

Now, to the particular movie, StarTrek. I didn't watch the original series in the 60s, not being born then, neither did I watch it when it was telecast in India when I was a kid.

DH introduced me to it just a couple of years ago, and I turned into an instant fan.

I love Kirk's alpha male enough but it is Spock that captured my heart from the first moment I laid eyes on him.

I love his Vulcan logic, I love his inner fight where he wants to deny the human part of him, the emotional side of him.

I loved Leonard Nemoy as Spock.

So, I was a bit skeptical as to how much I would like the new Spock.

But I have heard only good things about him.

Let's see.

Out of steam

I feel like I've run out of steam in the past few days with respect to my Desire WIP. I have around 8 or 9k to write and then I will be done with the first draft, even though, it will fall short of 50K. But I've realized that I do that with all my first drafts, so I'm not worried.

Now as to why I can't concentrate I don't know. It might be the upcoming trip with my toddler girl to India for more than a couple of months. I still have to pack and I have a gazillion things to do before I leave.

Or it might be that I'm a bit unhappy and potentially scared that my story is not good enough because I wrote it pretty fast and I feel like I have glossed over a lot of things. But I keep telling myself that given the timeframe, I did ok. I wrote around 29k just in May and I have to pat myself on the back because it's quite the milestone for me. Yes, I had hoped to maybe even finish it in May, but let's stick to the positive side of things.

I still have to polish my log line: due June 15th, write the synopsis, finish the WIP and start revising in the offchance that I get to pitch to the editor and she asks me for a partial or a full.

A girl can dream, right?

On the other side, I' ve done some reading lately and yes, that might be one of the reasons I didn't hit 40k just in May. But I'm glad I read because for a while I've been scared that I have the same headspace alloted to both reading and writing in my brain.

They felt like mutually exclusive events.

If I was writing, I couldn't read anything because it took all my energies.

If I was reading, I couldn't write because I'm one of those that read the book until I'm done without a break even though my eyes are falling out and there are flies swarming over the sink which is full of dirty dishes. Ok, that was a bit of an exaggeration.

But I managed it ok with the last couple of books. I finished my daily quota of words on the WIP and then spent the evening reading.

As usual, I loved Anne Perry's Execution Dock, the latest in the William Monk series. How does she dot it? I love the way she makes her characters dig deeper and deeper with every book.

JR Ward's Lover Revealed was good, although there were parts where I skimmed the story a bit. Somehow I kept wishing that Butch should have stayed human, being able to help with destroying the lessers with the whole inhale thing. Turning him into a vampire disappointed me a bit although I was happy for him. I'm looking forward to reading Vishous's story but have decided to wait for a couple of months since the books read like drugs. You want them but you don't want too much at the same time.

And then, I finished reading Deanna Raybourn's latest installment in the Lady Julia Grey mystery series, Silent On The Moor, and I have to say I like this one the least. It was rambling for quite a while, just the same scenes happening again and again in different guises. And the hero, Nicholas Brisbane really pissed me off. It felt like it was a one sided relationship, all the effort only on Julia's part whereas he acted like a stubborn dog, although I'm happy that they finally, finally tied the knot.

I'm also dying to read the next one in Victoria Thompson's gaslight mysteries, Murder on Waverly Place featuring Sarah Brandt and Frank Malloy.

Yes, can you tell I'm both a mystery and a series junkie?

Weekly Goal #2

Took a 3 day break from the current WIP, SBTH.

Feeling a little panicky now when I see the date. Although I'm pretty confident I can finish the WIP by June 7th ( since I'm leaving to India on June 9th which means I will lose a few days with jetlag and whatnot) , I'm a little scared of the massive editing/revising/polishing that will be involved and past records show that I suck at the whole editing process. So need to leave plenty of time for that.

Setting a weekly goal of 10,000 words. Must bring the WIP to 35K by Monday.

Onwards and upwards.

 

11 PM update: Wrote 2500 words and met today's goal. Now if only I could get some quality snooze.

A perfect day

I had a perfect day today.

After a couple of weeks of sleepless nights, I woke up feeling refreshed after a goodnight's sleep.

Then I cooked.

Then I conquered the afternoon nap demons.

Then I wrote.

Then I shopped.

Then I spent some quality Mother's Day time with the little one and had her pick a present. (Ok, so I cheated here a little, but she did give a grunt of approval for a particular pair of silver strapped sandals.)

Then I came home and wrote some more.

Sigh.

If only every day could be a perfect day.

P.S. I'm also feeling very chuffed that my WIP has hit the 20,000 mark. 

Working weekend

I'm catching up on my writing this weekend. I wanted to have at least 15,000 words done on my Desire WIP by the end of April. But a nasty bout of cold and cough and fever meant I lost the whole of last week. So I need to get back on track.

And the dutiful mother that I am, I passed on my bug to the little one who I'm ashamed and a little proud to say is a far better patient than I am.

Update: Not bad for the day as I still fell pretty weak. I finished chapter 4 tonight and should catch upto 15000 words tomorrow. Xavier got a little surprise when he realized something about Samantha and boy, he has some more shocks coming his way. But the good (although arrogant) guy that he is, he is taking it all in stride and beginning to see Sam for what she really is.

And now for a little endorsement. I had about 20 packets of EmergenC while coping with the cold. And it's now my favorite drink.