TGIF! Time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. I have 300 hundred pages revised. Well for those pages, it was just a little cutting, redoing a lazy sex scene, and general cleanup. Fixing the sex scene took the most time, as those have to dig into emotions and trust, or have some value, otherwise, they’re pointless and boring. Especially in the third book of a trilogy. But, oh my gosh, I once again love Justice and Liza, and I’m adore Justice’s dad, Noah and Liza’s mom, Amber. All these characters are truly trying to become the best version of themselves.
2. Ideally, I’d like to cut 10 to 20K words in the next 200 pages, but that’s a tall order so we’ll see. This last part will probably take up to a week, or as long as I need, to do it right. Then while I’m working on the final clean edit, I’ll reach out to my editor who worked on the other two books to see if she has any room on her schedule. Once my editor gets a hold of it, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more revisions in my future.
3. I had a glass of wine last night and enjoyed it. Lately, we’ve stopped drinking wine most evenings. It just sort of happened. Part of it was being tired in the evenings from world events stress, I guess. Which is kind of funny since a chunk of the memes on FB are about drinking more during the pandemic. I’m such a rebel, LOL!
4. Maggie’s new collar and leash should come today. She’s very excited
5. We might see Turbo on Sunday. I’m so caught up in work right now, I’m barely noticing much else. Getting this book done to the best of my ability is vitally important to me. While it was circumstances beyond my control that stopped my writing, I still let down fans and I don’t take that lightly.

That’s my lame five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and stays healthy and safe.

Let’s say the world needs a hero. Who do we call in for the job?

A Teddy with Bouquets of Hearts?

A Dark Angel?

A Cowboy

What’s your pick at this moment?

Happy Monday! The weekend was as good as possible with our country in turmoil. In the last few days, I’ve put my head down and worked. It’s easier for me to solve problems in fictional worlds than in our real world.

Which is why we read fiction

So my weekend. Saturday, both Wizard and I hadn’t slept well and were tired and achy (but not sick). But we both agreed it’d do us good to push through, and we were right!  Turbo and his parents came over. Then his dad left to go help Youngest Son’s finish painting the inside of his garage. Turbo, Special K, Grandpa and I all hung out and played here, along with Maggie of course. I have video of Grandpa helping Turbo drive one of the radio control cars (the grown up kind, not toys). That RC car is a monster truck and Turbo loved it. It was an awesome moment for grandpa too

In what’s become a pattern, Turbo cried when he left But once I assured him he could come back to Grandma’s house anytime, he stopped. When they were getting in the car, he did the usual saying bye and blowing kisses to grandma and grandpa. then Turbo waved toward the garage and said, “Bye Monster Truck.” It was so danged cute!

Sunday, I worked on editing the print copy. I’m at 450 pages, and just have 50 more to go. The first half to two-thirds of the book seems to be flowing, and the last third or so needs some cutting and tightening. My biggest concern has been, and still is, pacing. But doing this gives me a better overall sense of where I can tighten that up. Once I finish this, I’ll start on revisions, but I don’t think they’ll be any big ones, just cleaning up, some cutting, fixing and tightening.

Bigger revisions while come from my editor later, but I’m just focusing on each step.

And that was pretty much it for me. How was your weekend?

TGIF! Wow this was a speedy week. And now it’s already time to share five random things about our week.

1. My face is healing after losing the fight with a knob. So humiliating. The only two places I’ve gone this week is grocery shopping and I had to return something at Kohls.
2. Speaking of Kohls, the one nearest me just reopened. They have limited hours, one way in and one way out, employees are wearing masks and cleaning after each customer. I appreciate all their precautions. What I don’t appreciate is the older woman who pitched a fit because the dressing rooms are not open yet, and she was rude to clerks. It must have been a shock for her to learn that Kohls decided protecting all the customer and employees health is more important that her wish to try something on.
3. I started reading through my book yesterday, and got about 120 pages done. And suddenly, I’m feeling all the old pressure of trying to do a LOT of work, and meet other demands on my time. Making it even more frustrating, Wizard is bored and I try not to work past 4 or 5. I’m not complaining, but I’m really seeing how danged hard I drove myself in the past. I’ll find a good balance.
4. I planted my three herbs in the cute container and they are already sprouting on my kitchen windowsill! I suspect I goofed up the way I put the seeds in but the instructions were unclear, and I had no idea what I was doing. Live and learn.
5. It looks like Turbo is coming over Saturday. The plan is a little vague, something about Turbo and his mom will come to my house, Wizard and Oldest will go to help Youngest do something, then all will return to swim, and somehow food will magically appear. I suspect I’m the magic that will make food appear Okay, that’s not true, they would all be fine with picking something up. I have to remember that *I’m* the one who puts too many expectations on myself.

So that’s my five, and now I’d love to hear yours! Have a great weekend!

This year has been a challenge, hasn’t it? Honestly, I’m afraid to even guess what might come next.

But there has been a silver lining for me. Yesterday, I finished my huge, ugly mess of a 503 page first draft of SAVAGED DEVOTION, the final book in the Savaged Illusions Trilogy! As many of you know, I’ve struggled since the first day I could no longer raise my right arm due to bulging disks in my neck over two years ago. I don’t want to get into the long, boring story of my struggles. This is the simple version: Covid-19 happened, and in that nightmare, I found myself writing to cope, and able with hard work and intense concentration, to once again hear my characters voices. It’s an incredible gift in the midst of a pandemic and deeply troubling issues gripping our country. I am so very grateful.

I still have a lot of work to do. First I’ll print and read to make notes, and then rewrite. Once I do that, I’ll edit again to get it clean and when I’m sure I’ll be ready, I’ll reach out to my editors to see if they are willing to edit the book. So yeah, a lot to do.

But in this moment, I’m celebrating what feels like a massive achievement.

So that’s my silver lining in 2020. Do you have one, big or small, you’d like to share?

What a sad week and weekend in the U.S. I care deeply, and am as affected as most of us. However, I managed a small self-inflicted injury yesterday that gave me a small headache so I’ll just skip ahead to some lighthearted stuff.

Friday night we saw Middle Son for his birthday. I think it’s been nearly eight weeks since we’ve seen him, or something like that. It was wonderful. I made him lemon pound cake (his favorite), his lovely wife made salad and picked up some pizza–it was perfected. And I got to hang out their awesome dogs, Jett and Hazel.

Saturday we went to CPA Boy’s. I babysat Turbo, while they repainted the patio cover. As soon as we got there, I said, “Turbo, let’s go play trucks.” He took my hand, ran in his room and we played the entire two hours. So Turbo stands up, bends at the waist to hold his trucks on the ground and runs with them across the house. He wanted Grandma to do this, and of course, I did. I was rather impressed with myself–until my daughter-in-law popped her head in, saw me, and tried so hard to resist laughing at how silly and undignified I looked.

She failed….I saw her laughter. And that made me laugh Honesty, her expression–priceless!

Sunday, we returned so Wizard could help them stretch a new canvas covering over the repainted patio cover. I was playing with Turbo, when I jogged to catch him at a doorway, scooped him up in one arm, and tripped. Turbo was fine! I had him secured, and caught myself with my other foot before I fell very far. Unfortunately my face forgot to stop, and hit a doorknob. I now have a black eye. Sigh. This was me yesterday, after Wizard encouraged me to lay down. I’m sure it’ll be more colorful tomorrow.

CPA Boy said, “Mom, why did I inherit your goofiness?” Ummm…I don’t think that was a compliment?

Anyway, I’m fine, just irritated at myself.

I hope everyone is safe and okay. I’m worried about you all. Please check in and let me know how you are, and how your weekend was.