Tag Archives: time travel

ROW80: Gone!

by Jennette,

And it’s a wrap! As usual, I greatly overestimated what I thought I could do. But I still feel good about Round 3. Here’s how it wrapped up:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 12.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – ready to submit to anthology. Done!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
Obviously, none of my bonus tasks got done. But most importantly, I got my story finished and ready to submit! The deadline’s this Saturday, and I just got feedback back from the last beta reader, so I’ll incorporate what I like from that. I did make progress on How to Think Sideways and Get It Together, if not as much as I’d like. I also made my fitness goals more weeks than not, so I consider that a win!

How did you do, if you’re doing ROW80? Are you up for joining us for Round 4? It starts October 1st, so get those goals ready!

ROW80: Going, Going…

by Jennette,

I’ve done a lot of walking the past few days. Friday night, my husband, daughter and I walked the 5k of the USAF Marathon. Yesterday, I took my daughter on a campus visit of nearby Miami University of Ohio, my alma matter, and anyone who’s gone there knows that a lot of walking is a way of life. It was a good visit, and I had fun traipsing down Memory Lane while she looked forward to the future.

Today, I’m doing a little more of looking back over the past week for my ROW80 update, which is itself going, going… as next week is the end of the challenge.

This week didn’t go too badly. Here’s what I accomplished:

  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways – Done!
  • Short story – collect/write front and back matter for standalone release, start working on cover – Done!
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10 – No
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – I technically didn’t do one interval and one short workout, but I’m totally counting the 5k and Saturday’s walking, so – Done!
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need – Didn’t get the material from her

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 12.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – ready to submit to anthology. Done!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Read Lesson 13 of How to Think Sideways
  • Short story – edits based on final beta reader’s feedback, and cover design for standalone version
  • Get It Together exercises 9 & 10
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Are you on track for your overall goals?

ROW80: Getting Better

by Jennette,

My list doesn’t look much more green than it did last week, and yet I feel like I accomplished a lot more. At least a couple of the items are orange, meaning partly done, rather than red (meaning not done). Most importantly, my short story is out with four beta readers, two of whom have read my books, and two of whom haven’t.

However, I did end up doing something I’ve been meaning to put on this list, but keep putting off: I designed a real home page for my website! I like it a lot better than just using my latest blog posts. And, I incorporated my new author photos I had taken last month!

Here are the rest of the details:

  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways – No
  • Short story – complete revisions – first pass and second – Done!
  • Request beta reads for short story – Done! Got four takers, and sent the story to them, too.
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10 – No
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Got two and two.
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need – She hasn’t sent me the front & back matter yet, but we nailed her logo/colophon design.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 10.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – out with beta readers
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways
  • Short story – collect/write front and back matter for standalone release, start working on cover
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? How do you recover when something changes your plans?

ROW80: Close, but…

by Jennette,

The week started out well. I got a bit done on my short story revision each evening, saving the last–and longest–scene for Saturday. I also put off some of the other tasks until Saturday.

Of course, plans change. I’d planned to spend the afternoon with my mom, but forgot to take that into consideration when setting the week’s goals. And then we ended up spending the evening with friends, which I hadn’t planned for, sooooo…..

Anyway. Here’s what I did this week:

  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways – no
  • Short story – revisions, first pass – almost! But not quite. Edit: finished around 12:30 this AM
  • Request beta reads for short story – partial – requested one.
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10 – no
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – ugh. No on this one, too. Just two intervals.
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need – didn’t get the back cover text so this goes over to next week.
  • Critique a chapter for another writing friend – Done!
  • Prepare another friend’s business cards for printer – Done!

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 10.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – revision almost complete
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways (Lesson 11 is how to prepare a submission for traditional publishers – been there, done that, and I’m done with that, so I’m skipping it)
  • Short story – complete revisions – first pass and second
  • Request beta reads for short story
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? How do you recover when something changes your plans?

Edit: I wrote this at about 10:30 PM last night. After my husband went to bed, I wasn’t sleepy, so I stayed up and completed my revision pass! So even if it was after midnight, I’m going to go back and mark that one as done!

ROW80: Catch-up Day

by Jennette,

When I was a kid, I didn’t like Sundays very much, because they were boring. Even in college, at least starting out, I wasn’t crazy about weekends because I wasn’t a partier. My attitude on this changed by the time I graduated, and once I entered the work world and got a social life, I’m all for weekends.

For those of us with a traditional 8-5, Monday-Friday paycheck job, weekends are when we catch up on stuff around the house, spend time with family, and maybe once in a while, get to spend time with friends or do something fun just for us.

And once in a great while, we get a little gift of pure blessing: a day when we don’t have to go anywhere or do anything other than what’s on our own agenda.

I hardly ever get those days. But yesterday, I did, and I totally cranked on my ROW80 goals! Here’s what I did this week:

  • Work through Lesson 10 of How to Think Sideways – Done. There wasn’t much to do beyond reading, in relation to my current WIP
  • Print out short story and do initial read-through for revisions – Done!
  • Get It Together exercise 7 & 8 – Done!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
  • Format a friend’s book for print – Done, as much as I can until she decides on what trim size she wants and gets me back cover copy, etc.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – done through Lesson 10.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story – revision started!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – completed sections 3 – 8.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy – Needs revision based on beta reads – waiting until I get other projects done
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Read Lesson 12 of How to Think Sideways (Lesson 11 is how to prepare a submission for traditional publishers – been there, done that, and I’m done with that, so I’m skipping it)
  • Short story – revisions, first pass
  • Request beta reads for short story
  • Get It Together exercise 9 & 10
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print if she gets me what I need
  • Critique a chapter for another writing friend
  • Prepare another friend’s business cards for printer

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Have you had a catch-up day lately? Are you someone who likes a day where you don’t have to go anywhere or do you get antsy staying home all day?

Look! Christmas can be Murder

by Jennette,

How? you might ask. Well, if you’re Taylor Gressman, and you inadvertently go back in time a couple decades, you might find yourself in the midst of the Christmas Killings, the worst killing spree in Dayton’s history. The killers, four of whom were caught and convicted, murdered six people between December 23 and 26 in 1992 for little more than a few bucks, a pair of shoes, and a jacket.

No one’s ever accused me of being too nice to my characters.

This is the premise of my upcoming short story, “Time’s Holiday,” and urban fantasy author Debra Kristi gave me the perfect opportunity to introduce it by tagging me in the LOOK! meme (Thanks, Debra!).

The rules are pretty simple. Just do a search for the word “look” in your work-in-progress, and paste it in with the surrounding paragraph or two. Then, of course, you get to tag others. First, a little bit of “Time’s Holiday:”

She opened her eyes to find a blond girl about her age staring at her from across the small… bedroom, she guessed, although there wasn’t any furniture. The worn carpet beneath her head was an indeterminate grayish-brown, and riddled with what looked like cigarette burns. The drywall above the blond girl’s shoulder was cracked, and someone had punched a hole through it just above her head. “Where…” Taylor began. She swallowed, her mouth dry. “Where am I?”

The girl half-shrugged. “Bill’s place.”

Taylor tried to shake off the lethargy. “Where’s… that?”

The girl cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t remember coming here? Man, you must’ve gotten some strong stuff.”

Taylor struggled to brace a hand on the floor. Had she been drugged? Finally, she pushed herself up. As she caught her breath, she looked down.

She still wore her black peacoat, her frilly black skirt billowing from beneath it. Her granny boots remained laced on her feet. A tiny, red hair clip shaped like a buttefly lay beside her. She lifted her hand to her head–ugh, why was it so hard?–and patted her hair. One of her ponytails had come out. And she realized that the girl across the room wasn’t blurry, so she still had her glasses on. “I…” Taylor stared at her hands. “No, I don’t remember.” The last thing she remembered was going to Courthouse Square to look for her angel, then some bum handing her a flyer…

Thanks again, Debra, for the tag!

image from Microsft Clip Art (office.microsoft.com)And now I get to tag people. I’ll just do a few, since I’d love to get a taste of what these authors are working on:

If you don’t have time or something ready to share, no worries!

My goal with “Time’s Holiday”  is to give those who’ve already read the Saturn Society books a fun glimpse into a minor character’s backstory, while piquing the interest of those who haven’t read the books.

On another note, when I did my search, the word “look” or a variation of it appeared24 times in 23 pages. Too much? What do you think? Do you like holiday stories? Is this too gruesome a topic for one (there’s no on-the-page violence)? While it isn’t the swee goodness and light that many holiday stories are full of, it does have its moments of Christmas cheer and goodwill.

ROW80: I’m Back!

by Jennette,

I ‘m back from my much-needed, thankfully-brief break.

Between a quick trip to Chicago and courting burnout, I did not accomplish very much, writing-wise, the last couple of weeks. My to-do list was overflowing and overwhelming, and even if I’d decided to ditch the to-do list, it still would have been lingering mentally. So taking a little time off from posting goals seemed the better option.

And it paid off. After venting a little bit, I ended up getting quite a bit done these past couple of weeks:

  • Finished first draft of short story
  • Got three interval workouts and two short workouts in last week, two intervals and two shorter workouts this past week
  • Picked up my new author photos from my photographer – very happy! I’ve begun updating my online profiles with the new headshot. Some of you may have seen it.
  • Finished web design/copywriting side job and uploaded to client’s web host
  • Finished several projects promised to friends – a book cover design, a business card design, and started on print formatting for another friend. These are all things I’m doing in exchange for editing, beta reads, etc.

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways – haven’t made much progress on this lately – need to pick back up.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – first draft done!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get other projects done
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – haven’t made much progress on this either – will get back into it this week.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (Got it back from last beta reader – t’s going to need a lot of edits.)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series
And here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
  • Work through Lesson 10 of How to Think Sideways
  • Print out short story and do initial read-through for revisions
  • Get It Together exercise 7 & 8
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Format a friend’s book for print (this is a beta reader – she’s helped me; this is how I’ll return the favor)

How are you doing, whether or not you’re doing ROW80?

ROW80: Need a Break

by Jennette,

I blogged on Thursday how fragmented my time has become, and the more fragmented, the less I get done. As you might infer from that, the motivation’s still lacking, but this week, it’s not for lack of trying. It seemed whenever I planned to spend an evening buckling down and getting some of my goals knocked out, something would come along to derail that. One night it was an unplanned dinner out (I was hungry, so no problem there, but it took longer than eating in would have). Another night, a friend dropped by. This isn’t one who doesn’t “get” the need to do the writing, but someone I hadn’t seen a probably a good couple of years, so it was worthwhile to spend an enjoyable evening with her. I just didn’t get any progress made elsewhere.

I did get my author photos taken last week, and that seemed to go well. Looking forward to meeting with my photographer to see what he’s come up with!

  • Two more scenes on short story – got about half of one scene done.
  • Lesson 10 on How to Think Sideways – Nope
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 7 & 8 exercises – Nope
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Got two interval workouts done, that’s it
  • Finish web design/copywriting side job and upload to client’s web host- Nope

I really don’t like that list with no green on it, but that’s how it goes. Time to take a step back.

One of my commenters on my “Fragmented” post mentioned that illness is life’s way of making us slow down. So that’s what I’m going to do this week, along with some other plans that would make it difficult to get much done. So I’m mostly taking the week off. Any progress on any of it will be a bonus!

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Working on Lesson 10 now.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – working on it!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get web design project done and short story written
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 6 done
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (It’s going to need a lot of edits, but not major story stuff. Whew!)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Ever feel like you need to take a break? What do you do, especially if the break cuts into your goals progress?

ROW80: Powering Through

by Jennette,

Motivation was low this week – I’m not sure why. I had other, little things that piled up – and I was motivated to do none of it. I did manage to force myself to do my writing, which was exciting because I haven’t written any significant amount of new material in almost three years.

I know part of what made that hard to do was fear. But I pushed through and made myself get something down, even though it’s probably not that good. Thank goodness for revisions! Here are the details:

  • Two scenes on short story -Done!
  • Lesson 9 on How to Think Sideways – Done!
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 5 – 8 exercises – Got 5 & 6 done.
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done
  • Track exercise & consumption 5 days – No. Going to rethink this one.
  • BONUS: Web design/copywriting side job – the client got back to me Tuesday or Wednesday, and I got part of his changes made. So not bad.

Not as much as I wanted, but it’s something.

On another note relating to one of my overall goals, one of my beta readers for Hangar 18 wasn’t working out, so I asked someone else – a coworker who is also retire USAF. He gave the book a quick read and got me a bunch of feedback the NEXT DAY! And it was good info – wow, did I miss a lot of details! He even offered to give it a more through read, to which I said, sure! Have I said lately how my coworkers are awesome?

So Hangar 18 is at least moving forward again. I am also getting new author photos taken later today, and I’m a little nervous. Here’s what else is on deck for this week:

  • Two more scenes on short story
  • Lesson 10 on How to Think Sideways
  • Complete Get It Together Chapter 7 & 8 exercises
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Finish web design/copywriting side job and upload to client’s web host
  • BONUS: Additional writing on short story

Here are my goals for the quarter overall:

  • Work through Lesson 18 of How to Think Sideways Working on Lesson 10 now.
  • Complete Saturn Society short story for holiday anthology – working on it!
  • Release Times Two (combined ebook of Time’s Enemy and Time’s Fugitive) – waiting until I get web design project done and short story written
  • Complete Get It Together exercises and data gathering – Chapter 3 – 6 done
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts per week – ongoing
  • BONUS: Release Hangar 18: Legacy (It’s going to need a lot of edits, but not major story stuff. Whew!)
  • BONUS: Plot out and begin writing first book in new series

What are your plans for the rest of summer, whether or not you’re doing ROW80? Got any suggestions for motivation, when you’re having trouble meeting your goals?

A New Vacation Phobia

by Jennette,

I’d never really thought about it before, but as I was packing for my recent trip to France, it occurred to me that I have a phobia that’s very real, and mostly manifests during vacation: the fear of running out of reading material. Never mind the plane trip – whenever I feel nervous about that, I remind myself that plane accidents make the news because they are so rare, and that I do something statistically more dangerous every day when I get into my car and drive to work.

English: A Picture of a eBook Español: Foto de...

No, my fear is running out of books to read. The longer the plane ride, the worse it is. Traveling internationally, to a country whose primary language is not English is another concern – we might be able to find a bookstore, full of stuff I can’t read (or in the case of French, can’t read well enough to just enjoy the story).

Of course, you’d think it would be easily handled by simply taking lots of books. I used to do just that. I didn’t bother packing my clothes until a day before departure – if not that morning. No worries there. But my books, I started collecting several days before, if not a week. I’d pick books from a variety of genres, and a variety of subgenres of romance, because hey! – who knew what I’d be in the mood for when I finished the current book?

If the vacation was a long one (a week), the books would get their own bag, or at least would fill my carryon bag, along with the change of clothes I always packed in case my luggage got lost. So when ebooks became popular, it was a godsend.

Problem solved, right? Finish a book, just hit Amazon, Smashwords, or the local library’s website and download another.

Except that you can’t go online from an airplane. OK, yes, we actually can, but bucking those rules is not something I want to try.

So I still spend a good bit of time before vacation loading up my smartphone with ebooks. Again, I need a good selection of genres so I can read what I’m in the mood for – and so I have backup in case I get hold of a book I don’t like. Then it’s necessary to open each book to ensure that it’s downloaded to the device so that once I’m up in the air, I don’t need to worry that I’ll click on a book that looks really good, only to find that it hasn’t been stored on my device.

But ebooks aren’t a universal solution either. You can’t even turn on the smartphones and ereaders until the plane is a good ways up in the air. Depending on how long the wait to take off is, that could be the better part of an hour. Okay, yes, there’s the Skymall mag, but that’s only good for 20 minutes or so for me. I need books. So I still wind up packing a print book or two. Oh, and with my smartphone, battery is another concern. An 8- or 9-hour flight is more than my phone’s battery lasts, especially if I take some time off reading to play games. So I also have to be sure to pack an extra, extended-life battery, and double-check that it’s fully charged before I leave.

So how did all of this work out for my trip to France? Well, I read two ebooks and one print book the whole time (I am not a speed-reader, and I did spend some time playing games). My extended-life battery had just gotten low when we landed in Paris, so it served me well. And the books themselves?

I still have over a dozen on my phone, unread. 🙂

What about you? How many books  do you pack, if going on a week-long vacation? Do you worry about running out of reading material?

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