What a lovely week. It started shitty (I was ill on Monday, a weird 24 hour bug of sneezing-coughing-death-ness) and then two days worth of break in the middle while The Sprogs were at nursery. Got lots of things done too, plenty that I can afford to be pleased with myself. Let’s see.

Actions Last Week

~Finish Kindle Read of ‘Malcolm’ and get it sent to beta readers
Yep. Got the read down and the story sent off to three amazing betas. Two responses so far with plenty of critique/feedback for me to get my teeth stuck into. We’re on schedule where that’s concerned.

~Outline the special (compilation version only) special story for the end of the ‘Meeting Each Other’ series
Done. It’s just a little thing, shorter than all the rest. But now I know exactly where I want it to go, it will be easy to get it written and packaged ready for the compilation.

~Finish my blog tour posts for Breathless Press
Done. My first stop (if I have the date right) was 12 Jan over at Dawn’s Writing Nook, so if you haven’t been there yet, wander on over for a gander.

~Read through ‘Slippers & Chains: Second Base’ fully, the initial First Pass
Done. Ahead of schedule too. It took a look of head bashing to stop myself leaping ahead to the next stage. To actually have a break and work on other things that needed to be done too.

Activities For The Week

Now and only now am I allowed to start Deep Edits on ‘Second Base.’ I want to take this steadily and keep an even pace so I don’t burn out. This is what things are going to look like:

1. Complete Deep Edits on 12k words of ‘Second Base’ (which takes me up to the scene with Karen and Pete chatting in the garden).
2. Perform Beta Edits on ‘Malcolm’ using comments from (very, very kind!) beta readers
3. Write the special (compilation version only) special story for the end of the ‘Meeting Each Other’ series

Thoughts…

Hmm. Like I said, not leaping ahead is going to be the hardest part. I found that last week, given that I was done with my First Pass so soon, Da Shared Brain was able to spend a lot of time on Caladria work. I also found that all three of us are significantly less stressed and easy going.

Forcing myself to keep to the schedule outlined by DSB means that I have forced breaks. This is something that didn’t happen last year and is, in part, what lead to me falling to bits on odd occasions. It will be interesting to see how this method pans out over the coming months.

I was also given notice of a competition that I’m considering entering. There is a snippet in the raw draft of ‘Second Base’ that I know won’t make the cut. I could clean up that snippet and easily enter it as a stand alone short story. First prize is £1,000. Not bad, eh? 😉

What are you going to be doing this week? Have you gotten over the back-to-work-blues, yet?