Thought Patterns

…let me count the ways.

BGCFA started as a title.

Simple Sarah/The Blessed started as an idea.

Mutts From Wayback started as a joke.

Butch Girls and Stereotypes (aka BG3) was already an idea when something happened to trigger the title.

Currently, I am working on Simple Sarah and BG3. I keep waffling between the two as to which one should get all of my attention. I am doing some light editing and filling in some spaces on Simple Sarah but doing some major changes (again, dammit) to BG3.

All this and trying to avoid moving my head and getting another migraine. I am so freakin' tired of headaches. I really am.

I've decided to continue with BG3 vs working on SS pt 2. It is well over halfway finished and I am more sure of just how it will finish. I also read through BG4 last night. I had forgotten how interwoven with BG3 it is so I made a few changes to BG3 and made a lot of note changes to BG4.

These BG books, which is short for the Butch Girl series, are fun to write. I so love the characters I have created and the new ones that are in notes waiting to be made real in the novels. Kelly and Grace, the MCs from BG1 (aka Butch Girls Can Fix Anything) appear in all the books as does the side characters Harri, Kaye, Annette, Nikki, Rain, and Lucy the Brat. New ones will be Liz, Ellen, Sam, Chaz, and a few others I've not got firm names for.

At any rate, thought I'd update y'all on what I am doing. Lorna has the print-out of SS. When she's done, we'll discuss what she thinks of it and I'll either edit more (the most likely scenario) or I will send it off to RCE.

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Listening to: The Jeff Healey Band - How Much
via FoxyTunes

I finished the edits of Simple Sarah. Phew.

It is a freakin' fantastic story. I have always loved it and believe it will be one of my best work.

Now to decide how to deal with it. Do I keep going and write the next one? Or do I send this one off as soon as Lorna is done reading it?

Keep writing is a good thing because then the facts are kept in line and I have the privilege of changing the first one should the second or third one change it.

Sending it off is a good thing because then it is OUT OF HERE.

This is different that the BG books. In the BG books, each one focuses on different characters. They all share the same geographic location and characters from one book will/can appear in other books. But there's no real story line that is shared other than location and time. Any of the books can be read in any order.

With the Simple Sarah books, it is the same storyline in each book following the same characters.

Opinions? Thoughts?

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Listening to: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Heartbeat
via FoxyTunes

I've made great strides in the editing of Simple Sarah. I went through all of the print out, making notes as I went. My beta readers, D and R, did a freakin' fantastic job!

I am on page 310 of what is so far 365 pages. It has climbed to over 91K, which is the best part. There are sections where I will back up and add a scene or two and there are scenes to add and/or work on in the sections coming up.

I've still not come up with a name for the nation. I stare at it and my brain freezes.

Meanwhile, I have been slowly going through the huge honkin' double spaced print out of BG3. I am only at page 59 with about 200 more to go. The story isn't finished but I need to go over it and decide where it is going.

When finished with SS, I will print it out (single spaced) and turn it over to Lorna for her critical reading. She's read it so many times, though, but I don't think she's read this version so it will be a treat. While she is reading that, I will get back to work on BG3.

So that is where I am now and what I have been doing.

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Listening to: Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
via FoxyTunes

Okay, I got it fixed. Phew!

Easier than I thought, really. Isn't is always? You worry and fret over something you think is big and it turns out to be some little thing?

Taking part of the scene outside worked well. There were some other parts that had to be changed but overall, it went smoothly. The scene works well, too.

The book takes an odd turn soon and I'm not sure whether that turn is needed or not. I think I will drop it all and use another idea I had. There's been hints to it before, and I've not seen a way to work it in until now. This new direction is just what the book needs, I think.

I want to get this book, BG3 done quickly, make it pretty and send it off to the publisher. Then I want to work on the first of the Simple Sarah books and send that one off as well. Won't that be cool? To have two books bought in one year? The same year my first book was released? I can do this, yes.

No goals this time. I'm just doing it. I don't seem to do well with goals. Just like the current US gov't administration, I fight deadlines. But at least with me, it is word counts, not body counts.

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Listening to: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Black Leather
via FoxyTunes

But at least it is progress.

I am working on BG3, tentatively titled Butch Girls and Stereotypes. Tentative is the key word here.

Actually, this is what the title will look like on the cover, if I have any say in the matter.

At any rate, I am closing in on 60K with a 90K goal. I'd like to go over that top mark to leave room for editing. We'll see.

I am also editing "Simple Sarah", book one of the Trilogy, and tentatively called The Blessed. Editing it is easy since the beta readers (mucho thankso to D and R!!) did such a great job of reading, editing, and commenting. I'm only about half-way with that and adding a lot as I go.

So I am working. I am trying to be a professional. I am still working on the Twelve Step program. I take 15 minutes each day and do filing in an attempt to clean up my work area (aka The Living Room). Lorna helped some yesterday but today was too busy reading. She's been reading Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel's Chosen. She read Kushiel's Dart last week and is in love with the writer.

I am busy editing SS based on the notes from my wonderful beta readers.

And today I am going to jump feet first back in to BG3 and finish it, dammit.

I got bins to start the filing and am managing to keep the desk relatively free of clutter. Each evening or morning, I clean it off from the accumulated crap. Mt. Dew bottle(s), styrofoam from a box, a new box of pens, paper towel roll, empty bag of corn chips…you get the idea. Lorna and I went to Office Depot last yesterday to spend that rewards card I had. We got the bins, the pens, and a few other things. We wandered through the office furniture section. Big mistake. I wish we had the room to have a real desk. Or at least a prettier one. Mine is made from 2×4, brackets (Simpson Strong Ties rock!) and half-inch plywood.

I miss having a true portable computer. My Dell laptop is 4 yrs old this week, bless its heart. I had hoped to have a new one by now but you know how it goes.