Keeping Busy over Here!

I’m trying to figure out how often I should blog and what I should blog about. Doesn’t help much that you all don’t comment very often! And the spam comments…shudder.

Doesn’t help that I’m using the word *should* either. Does anyone care about my impressions of what I *should* do? I thought not. So if I can’t be engaging in some way, I shouldn’t bother. Oh, wait. There’s that word again.

ACFW has recently instituted a loop crit group called Scribes. The idea is that a person is allowed to post two pieces for crit per week, max 2500 words each. That is, so long as they crit at least two pieces for every one they post.

This started up in the beginning of June when I didn’t have anything ready to post, but I hopped on the bandwagon and began following several stories, in hopes of making myself some buddies for later. Well, the deal is that they’re expecting smaller groups of compatible writers/critters to form out of the large loop, and then bow out, making room for new entries. Being as I didn’t have anything to offer up, I didn’t get in on the flurry to create new small groups, but new folks are entering now in July so we’ll see what happens.

I’m a believer in keeping my first drafts close to my chest, as it were. I won’t post up brand new writing to a crit group. Why, when I know the story is going to morph and change and I’ll likely think of a better opening scene later? And change some characters around? Seems a waste of a critter or two. And everyone’s time.

So I was waiting for crits to return on the contemporary romance I’d entered in Genesis before I dug into another round of edits on it. One’s back, one’s still to come, but I decided to dig into the first few chapters of Joy Comes in the Morning (aka Chloe’s story) anyway being as I also had the Genesis judges’ comments to go by on those.

I’d like to have this novel prepped for pitching at the conference in September, so it’s time to get this stage rolling. I’ve submitted the first two scenes through the group now and have gotten some decent feedback. Stuff I can use. So all’s well on that front, at least for now.

Then there’s the romance series I’ve been dreaming up for the past couple of months, tentatively called Green Acres. (That’d be the working series name, not book title–I don’t have one of those yet!)

I’ve done a fair bit of research, worldbuilding, character building, and outlining for it, though I know the outline isn’t rock solid. However, because I can see the first few scenes quite clearly, I decided to start writing and just keep it slow so I could figure out where I’m going and how to get there as I go.

Yesterday I wrote the first scene–just over 2K. Because my series involves four gals living together, this scene introduces all of them. Hard to do that without overwhelming the reader, but here’s hoping it’ll work. What I didn’t foresee was their precise tastes in music–and that, when I put them on a field with a bunch of mud, they’d start flinging it. Ah well. Apparently I’m not writing a *clean* novel. (Hey, it’s a joke!)

Other than that, I’m critiquing a novel for a buddy, weeding the garden, walking the dog, admiring my newest great-niece, watching our new honeybees buzz around the farm, cooking, cleaning, going to work every day–you know, the whole normal life thing.

What are you up to these days? Come on, talk to me!