Getting opinions for my work can be an all day thing. Fortunately, most of my beta readers work at the same store as me. This was especially good yesterday when I found myself stuck waiting for my husband to finish his shift so we could go home.
Instead of pouting when I couldn't find someone else to take me home, I tracked down two of my beta readers and asked them to have a look at a scene change I was thinking of doing in chapter twenty-five(yes, I know I'm supposed to be working on chapter twenty-seven, but this scene had been bugging me for a while).
While I was doing that, another person I work with saw the papers and asked what it was. My reply was a little garbled as I was(and still am) sick and had run out of cold medicine halfway through the day, but I must've managed to make some kind of sense, because she decided to read it too.
So I now have several opinions on that scene. Mostly they're positive, but seeing as the original scene was VERY polished and I threw the alternate one together in an hour's time late at night after I'd had some nyquil....it wasn't whole hearted.
Beta reader One(no names, sorry) thought the alternate was better. Or, it would be once I fixed two mistakes that she pointed out.
Beta reader Two said it would be very good if I blended the changes in better. A lot better. As in take the new bits and transfer them into the polished chapter seamlessly.
Coworker who took time to read pointed out an unrelated error(I had forgotten to add "the" at the right spot...on BOTH copies. How embarrassing!), and then said she liked them both. I didn't get a chance to clarify things for my fuzzy sick person brain before my husband was ready to go, but that's ok. I got what I wanted.
So today I'll be getting back to work on chapter 27 as well as giving that new scene a good polish. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something to show for it. In the meantime, it's time for lunch and the leftover chicken lo mein in my fridge is calling my name.
Now where did I leave that little bottle of hot sauce...hm...
~Sun and Moon
May 22, 2011
May 16, 2011
Is this thing on?
First of all, I would like to apologize for the late blog post. It wasn't until I got back from work this afternoon that I realized I had forgotten to post yesterday.
Vacation can do that to a girl.
Yes siree, for the past week I've just been relaxing with my husband and being an all around bum. And it was awesome.
Unfortunately, it's time to go back to work and I don't just mean for that lovely thing known as a paycheck. Chapter twenty-seven is still waiting for those edits and will need a major rewrite. I also have a million little things to do around the apartment as well as a couple of new drawings waiting to be finished. Of course logic tells me I should've done all this while I was lounging around the house during my week long vacation.
Then again, where's the fun in that?
So it's back to trying to find enough hours in the day for all the little things while I do my best to whip my book into shape. The good news is that I'm almost done with this last all around edit for this book. Soon I'll be able to set it aside and move on to Book Two.
I hope.
Anyway, it's waaaay past my bedtime, so I'm off to bed before my husband wakes up and realizes I'm still typing away over here.
Goodnight all :)
~Sun and Moon
Vacation can do that to a girl.
Yes siree, for the past week I've just been relaxing with my husband and being an all around bum. And it was awesome.
Unfortunately, it's time to go back to work and I don't just mean for that lovely thing known as a paycheck. Chapter twenty-seven is still waiting for those edits and will need a major rewrite. I also have a million little things to do around the apartment as well as a couple of new drawings waiting to be finished. Of course logic tells me I should've done all this while I was lounging around the house during my week long vacation.
Then again, where's the fun in that?
So it's back to trying to find enough hours in the day for all the little things while I do my best to whip my book into shape. The good news is that I'm almost done with this last all around edit for this book. Soon I'll be able to set it aside and move on to Book Two.
I hope.
Anyway, it's waaaay past my bedtime, so I'm off to bed before my husband wakes up and realizes I'm still typing away over here.
Goodnight all :)
~Sun and Moon
May 9, 2011
A day on the farm
Well, it's been a rough few weeks, but the edits for chapter 26 are finally done. Today I'll be getting to work on chapter 27 after I get my sore butt out of this comfy computer chair and get some cleaning done.
Why am I so sore? Well, my husband managed to get his dirt bike fixed a couple weeks ago and yesterday we loaded it into the bronco and took it out to the farm for a test drive. It was an awesome day of hot sun and fresh air. While he rode around one of the far pastures, I spent my day chatting with one of the boarders in the barn as she cleaned stalls and scrubbed out water buckets. We topped it off with hotdogs and hamburgers fresh off the grill along with chips, salsa, salad, and greens. It was wonderful.
But after helping my husband take the top off his bronco and haul a dirt bike into the back with no ramps....I hurt.
All that walking around I did probably didn't help either. Thus I feel pretty beat up, but hopefully that won't keep me from cleaning the kitchen and maybe getting some artwork finished. If so, well....there's always tomorrow.
Right?
~Sun and Moon
Why am I so sore? Well, my husband managed to get his dirt bike fixed a couple weeks ago and yesterday we loaded it into the bronco and took it out to the farm for a test drive. It was an awesome day of hot sun and fresh air. While he rode around one of the far pastures, I spent my day chatting with one of the boarders in the barn as she cleaned stalls and scrubbed out water buckets. We topped it off with hotdogs and hamburgers fresh off the grill along with chips, salsa, salad, and greens. It was wonderful.
But after helping my husband take the top off his bronco and haul a dirt bike into the back with no ramps....I hurt.
All that walking around I did probably didn't help either. Thus I feel pretty beat up, but hopefully that won't keep me from cleaning the kitchen and maybe getting some artwork finished. If so, well....there's always tomorrow.
Right?
~Sun and Moon
May 3, 2011
And it all hits the fan
At about 7:30am, my husband's phone went off. It was his mom. I could tell something was wrong by the tone of her voice, but I thought it was something minor.
It wasn't.
Our beautiful, funny, independent german shepherd, Bretta, had passed away during the night.
I spent my morning digging a grave for Bretta with Paul. My clothes are covered in mud and my eyes burn from crying so much. We're not done yet, either. Because the ground here is super saturated from all the rain, the hole we were digging kept filling up with muddy water. Tomorrow my husband will be going back to the farm to finish the job and bury our dog. In the meantime I'll be working on a tattoo for him of her paw print.
So if you see me at work, or run into me outside of walmart, please don't ask how I'm feeling. Or if you must, then bring some tissues. If I'm going to start bawling in public again, I would appreciate not having my nose run everywhere. Prayers are welcome, and if you have a dog or know one....go give them a hug for me. You never realize just how much they mean to you until they're gone.
Rest in peace, Bretta. You will be missed.
~Sun and Moon
It wasn't.
Our beautiful, funny, independent german shepherd, Bretta, had passed away during the night.
I spent my morning digging a grave for Bretta with Paul. My clothes are covered in mud and my eyes burn from crying so much. We're not done yet, either. Because the ground here is super saturated from all the rain, the hole we were digging kept filling up with muddy water. Tomorrow my husband will be going back to the farm to finish the job and bury our dog. In the meantime I'll be working on a tattoo for him of her paw print.
So if you see me at work, or run into me outside of walmart, please don't ask how I'm feeling. Or if you must, then bring some tissues. If I'm going to start bawling in public again, I would appreciate not having my nose run everywhere. Prayers are welcome, and if you have a dog or know one....go give them a hug for me. You never realize just how much they mean to you until they're gone.
Rest in peace, Bretta. You will be missed.
~Sun and Moon
April 25, 2011
To cut or not to cut, that's the dilema
I still haven't finished chapter 26.
Were you surprised?
On second thought, don't answer that. Instead, I'll explain why I still have a muddle of halfway edited chapters and hopefully you won't roll your eyes and tell me I'm nuts.
Or at least try not too, ok?
Anyway, remember that virus that I wrote about in my last post? Well, no sooner then the next day, it was back. But not the same exact one. No, this one was another variation that was even smarter then the last. It took my husband and his friend several hours to get rid of it, during which it actually took over our computer, forcing my husband to have to pull the plug to shut it down.
*sigh*
The next day it happened again. We got rid of it.
So far it hasn't shown back up, but it seems it's only going to be a matter of time before I see it appear on my screen to invade my computer once more.
On that note, I've been sticking to sites we're sure are still safe, and trying to get editting done in between work and getting art ready for next month's sale. To top it off, I managed to catch a cold over the past few days.
Of course, even if everything hadn't gone so splendidly these past few days, I'm not sure if I would've made much progress. I decided to snip yet another piece from one of my chapters and now as I find myself trying to smooth out the rough edges from my latest cut, I wonder if I should have cut it at all.
Not something you need to be thinking about when you're full of dayquil and cough drops.
So the offending chapters are getting sent off to a friend of mine to make sure I didn't just shoot myself in the foot, and I'm off to get some real work done on chapter 26 while I can still think to type.
If this post sounds a little odd, don't worry. I'll be back to my usual, drug-less self by next Sunday. Until then, I'm off to tackle those edits and take a nap until my husband gets back to help me with dishes.
~Sun and Moon
Were you surprised?
On second thought, don't answer that. Instead, I'll explain why I still have a muddle of halfway edited chapters and hopefully you won't roll your eyes and tell me I'm nuts.
Or at least try not too, ok?
Anyway, remember that virus that I wrote about in my last post? Well, no sooner then the next day, it was back. But not the same exact one. No, this one was another variation that was even smarter then the last. It took my husband and his friend several hours to get rid of it, during which it actually took over our computer, forcing my husband to have to pull the plug to shut it down.
*sigh*
The next day it happened again. We got rid of it.
So far it hasn't shown back up, but it seems it's only going to be a matter of time before I see it appear on my screen to invade my computer once more.
On that note, I've been sticking to sites we're sure are still safe, and trying to get editting done in between work and getting art ready for next month's sale. To top it off, I managed to catch a cold over the past few days.
Of course, even if everything hadn't gone so splendidly these past few days, I'm not sure if I would've made much progress. I decided to snip yet another piece from one of my chapters and now as I find myself trying to smooth out the rough edges from my latest cut, I wonder if I should have cut it at all.
Not something you need to be thinking about when you're full of dayquil and cough drops.
So the offending chapters are getting sent off to a friend of mine to make sure I didn't just shoot myself in the foot, and I'm off to get some real work done on chapter 26 while I can still think to type.
If this post sounds a little odd, don't worry. I'll be back to my usual, drug-less self by next Sunday. Until then, I'm off to tackle those edits and take a nap until my husband gets back to help me with dishes.
~Sun and Moon
April 17, 2011
Get a hobby....please
Some people really need a hobby.
Now, I'm not talking about me. I have hobbys. Probably more then a sane person should. No, I'm talking about the idiots who spend all this time creating viruses and trojans and the like so they can set them loose on the internet for others to stumble across.
Yeah, those people.
Because of someone like that, I lost the better part of my day trying to figure out why Windows was insisting I had all sorts of spyware, malware, and every other bad computer thing infecting my system. Thanks to a computer savy friend of my husband's, all my computer problems had been cleared up, but by then my entire day was shot and I ended up spending the rest of the evening playing games online.
So because of all that, chapter 26 still isn't finished and the other chapters I'd realized needed tweaking are untouched. Tomorrow I might be able to catch up on the writting I missed today and make some progress on the pile of cleaning that I have yet to get through. Thank goodness my vacation is only about two weeks away. At this rate, I'm going to spend the whole time cleaning and writting.
Which is exactly how I had hoped I wouldn't be spending it.
On the upside, I finished a new piece of artwork(not the one I was supposed to be working on, but oh well), did some weaving on my little lap loom, and cleaned the livingroom while watching "Penelope" and "Ever After" on my husband's PS3. Other then the false alarm with the bogus virus, it was a good day.
Well, my husband just woke up and asked why I was still awake, so I should probably head to bed. That, and the fact I'm about to fall asleep at my keyboard, tells that this is probably a good idea.
G'night all :)
~Sun and Moon
Now, I'm not talking about me. I have hobbys. Probably more then a sane person should. No, I'm talking about the idiots who spend all this time creating viruses and trojans and the like so they can set them loose on the internet for others to stumble across.
Yeah, those people.
Because of someone like that, I lost the better part of my day trying to figure out why Windows was insisting I had all sorts of spyware, malware, and every other bad computer thing infecting my system. Thanks to a computer savy friend of my husband's, all my computer problems had been cleared up, but by then my entire day was shot and I ended up spending the rest of the evening playing games online.
So because of all that, chapter 26 still isn't finished and the other chapters I'd realized needed tweaking are untouched. Tomorrow I might be able to catch up on the writting I missed today and make some progress on the pile of cleaning that I have yet to get through. Thank goodness my vacation is only about two weeks away. At this rate, I'm going to spend the whole time cleaning and writting.
Which is exactly how I had hoped I wouldn't be spending it.
On the upside, I finished a new piece of artwork(not the one I was supposed to be working on, but oh well), did some weaving on my little lap loom, and cleaned the livingroom while watching "Penelope" and "Ever After" on my husband's PS3. Other then the false alarm with the bogus virus, it was a good day.
Well, my husband just woke up and asked why I was still awake, so I should probably head to bed. That, and the fact I'm about to fall asleep at my keyboard, tells that this is probably a good idea.
G'night all :)
~Sun and Moon
April 11, 2011
Late again *sigh*
Well, this post is a little late, but better late then never, right?
Anyway, chapter twenty-five was finished thursday afternoon. It's still a little rough around the edges, but it'll do for now. I'll be taking another look at it wensday and giving a final polish, as well as taking a peek at chapter twenty-three. If nothing goes wrong, I'll be finishing up the initial edits for chapter twenty-six right about then. In fact, I might be able to call it a wrap by friday and spend the weekend going over the twelve or so pieces of artwork I hope to sell in May.
There are about five chapters to edit(including number twenty-six) before I can do a final brush through and call Book One done and take my week off before tackling Book Two. I already have the beginnings for both chapters one and two written out and ready to go into the computer, and chapters one thru ten have been outlined. New characters are starting to pop up in my head, and if I'm not careful, my supervisors are going to catch me scribbling notes for those scenes that insist on being written down right then, thank you very much.
Trying to take care of a customer? Too bad. Attempting to zone your area and neaten up in general? It can wait, because that new saytr character from an unknown chapter wants to talk to Kris and the information for his race has to be written down in my little note book this very minute.
Yeah...I'm not crazy, I swear.
And on that note, I better get back to work.
~Sun and Moon
Anyway, chapter twenty-five was finished thursday afternoon. It's still a little rough around the edges, but it'll do for now. I'll be taking another look at it wensday and giving a final polish, as well as taking a peek at chapter twenty-three. If nothing goes wrong, I'll be finishing up the initial edits for chapter twenty-six right about then. In fact, I might be able to call it a wrap by friday and spend the weekend going over the twelve or so pieces of artwork I hope to sell in May.
There are about five chapters to edit(including number twenty-six) before I can do a final brush through and call Book One done and take my week off before tackling Book Two. I already have the beginnings for both chapters one and two written out and ready to go into the computer, and chapters one thru ten have been outlined. New characters are starting to pop up in my head, and if I'm not careful, my supervisors are going to catch me scribbling notes for those scenes that insist on being written down right then, thank you very much.
Trying to take care of a customer? Too bad. Attempting to zone your area and neaten up in general? It can wait, because that new saytr character from an unknown chapter wants to talk to Kris and the information for his race has to be written down in my little note book this very minute.
Yeah...I'm not crazy, I swear.
And on that note, I better get back to work.
~Sun and Moon
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