Is it possible to have too much green?

Whoot! Whoot! WHOOT! I finished the rough draft of my latest novel at five in the morning yesterday. Not once, but twice in those last four chapters, my main male protagonist threw me off, saying or doing something I hadn’t anticipated. I was like – seriously! You rock, MMP!

The other exciting thing is that I asked my husband to start reading it, and by nine yesterday morning he was up to chapter 10. He said that he liked it, but that he really did not like one of the male antagonists. Up to chapter 10 this MA hasn’t even done any of his bad stuff yet, but I’m impressed (with my husband or with my writing skills?) that Hubby picked up on this character.

Anyway, here are the stats: Total words - 73,554. Total chapters - 57 chapters, plus an epilogue. Started - 08-21-16. Finished rough draft – 10-28-17.

Next step. Let the Hubby finish reading it and email it to one other person for their initial review. Let it simmer for a month or two, then do a quick read through, checking for obvious grammar errors and inconsistencies, such as someone likes coffee in the first chapter and never drinks it by the end. My plan is to get that done by the end of the year. Give it another month or two to rest, then do a thorough edit to finish by March or April. Okay, I could continue with my plan, but that is for 2018.

Here are my goals for the past week and as usual, green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is at least worked on and red print is a total failure.

1)    Promote the new book, “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” five times.

a.     I posted a picture with a quote from the book to Twitter and LinkedIn. Twice. (So counts as two times.)

b.     Started researching ways to get more reviews and emailed a woman who reviews books on Amazon. I’ve had a hard time finding out how to contact people. I know ways I can stalk them on the internet, but I feel like if they don’t make their email address available, that they really don’t want strangers emailing them. I will continue to research this. 

c.      I heard from my publisher’s media person and she scheduled a book signing for me, so I shared that on my social media.

d.     Posted a rant on Facebook asking for reviews. Maybe not the right approach, but that’s life. I can be pyscho at times.

2) Finish the rough draft of the new novel. YEAH! You already know this.

3) Post three times to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles. Yes.

4) Read four other blogs and comment on three of them. Read five, commented on three.  

5) Clean up and organize my emails. I’ve always tried to keep my inbox less than 50, but it’s up near 100 right now.  I got my inbox to 50 at one time, but every minute it seems, another email pops in. At least it is back to manageable.

6) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer. Done.

b. Get one box of stuff out of that spare bedroom. None of it was from the spare room, but I did collect a box for the second-hand store.  

c. Do three things for the nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers.

            1] Sent in our yearly report to the state.

2] With my son, we updated Quick Books to get ready for Audit committee next Friday.

Wow, that was pretty impressive. An awful lot of green. Like I’m on the wrong month – it’ll be a while before we celebrate St Patrick’s Day.

Now, can I keep up this pace?  For next week:

1) Promote the new book, “Where the Sky Meets the Sand” five times.

2) Work on the study guide for “A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven”, which I had started in September.

3) Post three times to my other blog, The Dino Chronicles.

4) Read four other blogs and comment on three of them.

5) Non-writing things to do:

a. Scan a dozen of my mom’s old pictures into the computer.

b. Get one box of stuff out of that spare bedroom. Try selling some of our stuff, maybe post to Craig’s List. 

c. Do three things for the nonprofit, Tumaini Volunteers.

1] Audit the books for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2017 (we are a little behind).

My Aunt Clara's three kids. Frances died of cancer and Ben died in Viet Nam. Only Bill lived to old age. Ben (above) was actually the inspiration for one of the characters in my new novel.