This week I put together a cat thing. It’s one of those seductive multi-part climbing towers with scratch posts and a swingy thingy to belt at and it’s really great but it was a @#$%^&*%$ to put together. I hated it. I suffered. It was worse than writing a sex scene. Which I also had to do. Well, revise.
How did you suffer at work this week?
Somebody in the comments mentioned the suitcase posts, so here, have a look at back when I was traveling and had need of a suitcase: Continue reading
We finished Lavender’s Blue. Well, we finished a discovery draft. The whole thing. No missing scenes. I’m so happy I’m tap dancing.
And we’re already plotting the next one.
What made you tap dance with happiness this week?
You may have noticed you’re getting e-mail notifications again. The only thing we’re changing is that we’re turfing about a hundred people who signed up but never open the e-mails. If that’s you and you still want to get them, I think you just sign up again.
And as long as we’re here, let’s do a quick review of what you want from here. Right now you’re getting Working Wednesday, This is a Good Book Thursday, and the Sunday Happiness posts, plus the occasional Argh Author and Questionable, and then whatever random thought crosses my mind. Everything else about the blog has been around forever, so the place could probably use an update. So what other things would you like to see? Did we do something in the past you’d like to see again? Are we doing something now that’s annoying you? Speak up.
Like I had to say that last one with you guys.
I’m still reading Lavender’s Blue, fixing the plot lines I dropped and the foreshadowing I didn’t know I’d need. Bob says he has notes on about ten things he has to fix. While I was waiting for the master doc to come back to me, I read Loretta Chase’s Difficult Dukes books again. I really want that third one in the trilogy, but Loretta’s blog says she’s having difficulty finishing it. Wonder what that’s like. ARGH.
What did you finish reading this week?
This week I’m doing a quick revision on Lavender’s Blue, the read-through and catch glitches kind, and then making notes on Rest in Pink and doing another run through on Nita. I am very happy.
What are you working on?
We’re almost there. All my scenes are done and I think Bob has one to go, so now it’s rewrites and clean-up and then we’ll leave it be as we write the next one. If we manage to get all three books done, we can move back and forth among them, shifting details and foreshadowing things, but this one is really strong already. And the next book is going to be a blast. 
Of course, we hit some problems. Remember the 5ft purple bear? I found one on Amazon but it was red and larger so I changed it to a 6ft red bear ($219), and got an e-mail from Bob that said, “apparently the bear is red now? Well, that just screws everything up.” This from a man who wanted burning zombies. I think we’re just both giddy because it’s done, and we’re starting the next one together from scratch. It couldn’t have been easy coming into a half-done book. I am grateful to Bob Mayer.
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According to the NYT, “. . . you can learn to harness the good feelings that anticipation brings for your everyday life. Each night, for example, write down something you are looking forward to the next day, even if it’s small: a new book, a doughnut, a package coming in the mail.”
Or to put it another way, you should rehearse those words late at night, thinkin’ about how right the next day might be. (Thank you, Carly Simon.)
How did you anticipate happily this week?
It’s summer and it’s gorgeous, although temps in the 90s in June is worrisome. WTF? Thank god you can read inside. And outside. Anywhere really. I’m still working on Lavender’s Blue because we are now at the granular level, figuring out what’s underneath and behind the characters, and I’d forgotten how much fun it was to talk about the deep lives of the book people. It’s like gossip, only creative. Did you know the mayor’s wife is named Honey and used to be married to the police chief? Me, neither, but it makes me happy.
What did you read this week?
There is nothing better than work when it’s going well. Well, there’s nothing better if you’re talking about work, which we are.
So today working on Lavender’s Blue, I am Peter Venkman: “I love this plan. I’m excited to be a part of it. Let’s do it.”
We’re getting close to the end now, and things are starting to fall into place. This book is dense, lots of layers plots and subplots, two main plots (romance and mystery), tons of characters, motifs, I’m loving it. Which, as we all know after the Nita debacle, does not mean anybody else will love it. The best thing about this is that I’m not alone in the book, Bob keeps asking questions that make me think, we go back and forth on ideas, and then we celebrate together (ignore my typos):