Tag Archives: Edits

The gameplan

 

Spell Check, word cloud concept 9Laundry’s in the dryer which means it’s finally time to download VIPER, The Scoundrels MC book 1 to see what editing notes in the doc I have and what all needs to be done. I received them over the long weekend and since then haven’t had two seconds to do more than briefly glance at the editor sheet with her notes. For the most part it sounds pretty damn good. A few spots I need to fill in to make everything smoother, and a couple goofy things that obviously I wrote while half asleep. Ugh! Really need to stop doing that.

Once that’s off my plate the rest of the weekend is for writing. Which means more work done on book 3 of the Living Victorious series. Many readers have asked when this one is coming out. Unfortunately I’ve had a hell of a time getting back into the groove since Christmas. The extra long break and a shake up around work, nothing horrible mind you – just extra hours, extra work, and no extra help or bump in pay – mucked up my rhythm. Gotta get my groove back basically.

Last thing I need to do is load some more of my writer friends onto the blog for the coming weeks – been slacking there sadly. But I can do that during my breaks when I need a moment to clear the brain fog out.

Beyond that it will be lots of coffee, many snacks, and pounding the keys until my hands cramp and I need to find something else to do for a little while. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll update soon. ~ Moira

Relaxing the day away

Vector winter scene with forest background isolated on white.
Today will be a nice lazy day for the most part. I do have to run out for a few things but otherwise I plan to laze around and do some much needed writing. Gotta get my next Living Victorious book closer to the finished point, and I have a couple other WIP’s that will fill my time when I run into a mental block on LV3. Plenty to do on the writing front that’s for sure.

I have a new release coming out on Tuesday, my Christmas story to be exact – Greatest Gift. The cover is fabulous (though I’m still waiting on the unwatermarked version), and the first round of edits was a breeze. My editor seemed very pleased with the story in general, and other than commenting on my comma issue (damn you comma’s!!) there were only a couple little fixes to be done. Haven’t seen a second round yet, but I know things are super busy at EP these days given the sheer number of books coming out this month.

The first batch of Christmas cards went into the mail early -yay me!- and are making their way to the readers and friends who requested one. I can still get some more out in time for Christmas if anyone is interested in a card from little old me. All you need to do to sign up is click the blue Christmas ornament button to the right to be taken to the Google form. There are even gifts to be given if anyone is interested.

Let’s see, what else might there be to share today… Huh, I got nothing. Well, guess that means time to refill my mug and get back down to work. Hope everyone has a lovely day ~ Moira.

Almost there…

Bourbon Street Sign in New OrleansOnly ten more days before I’m officially on holidays in the Big Easy with the lovely April Zyon. I am so ready for this break, and it’ll be a blast to boot. I have no clue what I’m packing beyond the obvious, but I am starting a list – cause I’d really hate to be missing something. Especially since I won’t be able to “run home” and grab it, lol!

In other good news The Bass, Living Victorious 2 first round edits hit my inbox this weekend. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to check to see what might need fixing. I’m hoping that it’s all easy *crossing fingers* fixes without too many major boo-boo’s that need major rewrites. That sort of things suck. I also need to get them done before I leave so that my editor has them while I’m away to do her next look over. Maybe they’ll be back in my box when I return, here’s hoping.

First and foremost though is my current project. It sort of popped up suddenly – like most things involving my crazy muse – and it’s a seasonal story. Which means I need to get this sucker done, and fast. I only have a little more to go, I think. It’s always hard to tell with the muse. She keeps bombing me with details to add in so I never quite know where this is heading, and when it might be completed. It better be soon or it’ll miss the appropriate time to release.

Well I think that’s it for updates at this moment. Will put out more as they come to me. Look for a couple more posts to follow in the next two weeks before I depart. ~ Moira

A list of projects

Coffee_77856522_XSHappy Saturday everyone, it’s the weekend! Finally. I thought for a while there the week would never end, but thankfully it did. Now I need to knuckle down to work on a few projects of my own instead of the “day job”.

First up are the second round of edits on The Rhythm, Living Victorious 1. I got them back mid-week so I have to get them done so they can be turned in before my deadline. I opened the doc up a few minutes ago to take another browse through, and I don’t see it taking too many hours out of the day. A few tweaks, a couple of little fixes, some word adjustments, and then the final read through in the (sometimes vain) hope of ensuring I didn’t miss anything important. Or worse, I didn’t miss something spelled incorrectly for the sentence structure yet that still exists in the English language. It’s happened to all authors at one time. Something that should be “an” but is in there as “and”, the doc sees nothing wrong with it because it’s a word, but the mess it makes of the sentence and over all scene… Ugh!

Second item on my list o’ projects for the weekend is to get more words down into Living Victorious 2. I got a huge amount into it last weekend, and if I can manage the same this weekend I should be right about where I want to be for the finish. Perhaps a few other details, but not all that many. My one character, the leading lady in case you were curious, in book 2 has a huge decision to make. Something I’m currently working toward revealing. She’s been given a huge opportunity, but to accept it would mean putting the rest of her life, which she’s only recently regained, on hold. She’s unsure if she can take the risk by accepting the opportunity presented. It would mean a lot of strain, and distance while building a relationship she was sure would only remain in her dreams. The girl has choices to make, a lot of them, and very soon. We’ll have to see which way she goes I suppose.

Let’s see, other than that I have a few actual housekeeping projects to look after. ie: Cleaning – ick! But it must be done otherwise my squirrel syndrome kicks in, and I end up distracted from the truly important things in life – writing. YAY! LOL! So it will get done whenever I take a break. A little here, a little there, and before I know it the residence will be clean and there shall be no more distractions from the writing.

Well that’s it. I need to get a coffee refill, and then I will be buckling down on edits so I can get them back to my publisher for the final read through at their end. Have a fantastic day, a terrific weekend, and I will keep you up to date on what’s coming next. ~ Moira

Time to buckle down

SundayCoffeeHappy Sunday one and all. As the title suggests I have some work I need to get done. Namely a crap load of writing on book 2 of my Living Victorious series. While I’m still awaiting round two edits on the first book in the series this means I have time to knuckle down to finishing off the second book. I’m definitely not the fastest writing author out there, but these I want to come out within a reasonable time frame of one another.

So far it’s going really well. I’m currently over my halfway mark in the word count, and about halfway for what I have planned to go into this book. Still a number of things to get into the story of course, but they are coming along in a nice timely fashion. The muse is playing nice -always a worry- and staying on track. A pleasant change from her, lol!

I must admit I’m having a blast writing these books. They are definitely different from the last series I did. Namely there’s no murder, or bad guys involved. There is some mayhem of course, because they are rock stars, so things are definitely a little chaotic in their world. The characters are also a blast, easy going, and so fun to write. They all have their own personalities, and a number of similarities too.

This is the first series I’ve mostly planned out from the first word I put down on the page. I thought I’d give it a try, and see if it helped with the overall feel of the series. Not that I’m discounting any input from the muse, or the characters. But because of how the stories are interconnected to a degree I need to keep a close eye on where I take the story line, or where the characters feel it should go. Can’t let them go too far off script.

Well I think that’s about all I have to say today. Which means it’s time to grab some breakfast finally, top off the coffee, and knuckle down. I hope everyone has a fantastic day. Looks like it will be fairly decent weather wise at this end of the country. Talk again soon ~ Moira

A little editor love

pencil and paper with inscription r cup of coffee on blue wooden table

First off, happy Sunday to all! Now that we have that out of the way…

While initially nervous (okay, petrified) of what I might find upon delving deeper into the edits for The Rhythm, Living Victorious 1, I can now say that I am completely crushing on my new editor. She rocks in ways I can’t even comprehend let alone expound upon. She is da bomb. Evernight Publishing has the BEST EDITORS EVER! This is a personal opinion of course, and potentially a little biased since I’ve never written with another publisher. but it’s my post so I can say whatever the heck I want. HA!

Having an editor I’ve never worked with prior getting their hands on one of my babies is beyond nerve wracking. But I shall give credit where it is due, this woman knows her stuff. Since joining Evernight I’ve had the pleasure of working with four of their editors. Laurie T., Jessica R., Karyn W., and the latest in this powerhouse lineup is Kerry G.

All these ladies have gone above, and beyond. They are helpful, instructive, and when something in your story tickles their funny bone they love to point it out. Each has their own style to editing, much the same as every author has their own process and style to writing. I have only been blessed by the attention each editor puts toward one of my books. Truly I could go on, and on about them for likely hours. I won’t. If I do I’ll never get anything else done today lol!

But now that all the edits are done, and back into my publisher’s hands for round two, I can focus on getting book 2 of this series closer to completion. The muse is on board given how well editing went, and all we learned from Ms. Kerry – tools which we shall use for this book, and all those to come after. So I shall leave you all to whatever endeavors you might have planned for your Sunday.

Stay cool out there, and have some fun. I have my coffee in hand, a movie on the boob tube, and ideas to write. ~ Moira

Working on edits

Pen, Writing, Letter.

That’s right, I have edits for book 1 of my new 5 book series – The Rhythm, Living Victorious. My publisher sent them through last night, and after a quick peek to see who my editor was, and what she had to say I left them for this morning. Now I am armed with coffee, a bowl of cereal, and have it up on my screen ready to rock and roll once the caffeine starts to do it’s job.

For the most part it looks pretty good. A few filler words to get rid of, or change to something more productive to the sentence. There are also *snickers* some eyeballs doing things they shouldn’t be – oops! Definitely need to fix that since this isn’t a horror story where such things might slide. Let’s see, what else did she let me know about? Ah yes, some redundant words that can be scratched out – not that hard, and last were some overly repetitive words. I know the latter happens when I get tired. Even when I know I should stop for a while the muse is on a roll. As an author you keep writing when the muse is talking even if you can’t totally focus on the screen any more.

Depending on how far along I get on edits in the next hour I should have a vague idea of how long it will all take. Hoping to get the majority done today so that I can give it a good read through tomorrow with the changes to look for anything that needs work on the flow.

I also need to find my list of mistakes I noticed after I’d submitted so that I can ensure those too are fixed if she didn’t find them. Although this editor is scarily efficient (meep!) so I doubt she’ll have missed the things my eyes coasted over during the final read through prior to submission. Which I then later found while looking for teasers to share in my FB Group down the road. Yeah – that actually happens.

Well that would be it for today. Hope you are all having a great weekend, and staying cool out there. ~ Moira

Things to do

Happy Saturday all. A few things to share with everyone. First up is I’ve completed first and second round of edits for Drakon’s Prize, a part of the Bad Alpha anthology from Evernight Publishing coming this summer. It went really well, and super fast. Not sure if there will be a third round, but it’s more than possible given my lovely editor, and I had to do one pretty big fix. I think it works well though in the story – fingers crossed!

I’m also up on The Romance Review today for all interested. You answer the questions, and are put in for the prizes with points. So if you’re interested in getting in on the action it’s never too late! You can check it all out here.

The other plans for the day is to get some work done on my latest WIP’s. Last week I was mostly focused on a yet-to-be-named paranormal I’m working on. Bloody thing’s driving me batty. But it is trundling along rather well. Unfortunately I really need to buckle down, and whip the muse into shape to work on The Bass, Living Victorious book 2. I’ve had a few thoughts on that this past week that I think shall work rather splendidly in the over all story line.

Let’s see, what else… Nope, I think that’s actually it. Beyond a bunch of boring household chores, bleh!, there really isn’t anything else to share at this point. So have a fantastic weekend everyone ~ Moira

Making the brain have to work

Happy Saturday all! Been a pretty good day so far minus a small incident with a tap that led to a much more thorough cleaning of my kitchen than was allotted for the day. But that’s fine, it would have had to happen eventually, and I got my shower out of the way all at the same time lol! Well, not quite.

The small British kitten sleeps

With coffee in hand today I’m working on finishing up my edits for Drakon’s Prize out of the Bad Alpha anthology. The majority I got through quickly, and easily with only one hiccup so far. Had to resort to sending off a note to the editor for some clarification since my brain couldn’t quite figure out what she meant. I hate bothering them but this one just couldn’t be resolved by my poor little brain. Once I have her answer back I will finish up, and shoot it back to EP for round two.

Once I’m done edits then I will be swinging over to work on book two of Living Victorious for a while. Though I think I may sneak in a nap. I did not sleep well last night. My neighbors and I will be having words of a rather harsh sort soon if they don’t get their acts together. I truly couldn’t care less that they work on different shifts than I do, usually I can sleep through anything – brass band in the bedroom, cop cars popping wheelies on the street, or whatever. One of the few things I can’t sleep through is annoying laughs. Whether it be the sort like Janice off of “Friends”, or someone that sounds like a braying donkey, there is a level of laugh that is abrasive in the way fingernails down a chalkboard is. They had such an individual over last evening braying away in the wee hours of the morning waking me up. Had I not been happily ensconced in my bed enjoy the rain dampened air coming through my window I likely would have wandered over to have a “talk” with them. Lucky I didn’t feel like unrolling from my blankie.

So a small nap is on the schedule before I have to figure out what I’m doing for dinner. I’m thinking of maybe a little East Indian. I’m in the mood for some good Tandoori chicken, and there’s a place not that far from me that serves some of the best. And now I’m hungry. Okay, so a snack, and then a nap. Better stop writing this post before I talk myself into something else! Have a great day, and a fantastic weekend ~ Moira

A few things to share

Mother'sDay-TulipA massive Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there. I hope you are all enjoying your days however you want, and that your children are waiting on you hand and foot as they should be. I’m also sending lots of love to my own mother since we’re not in the same city at this moment, but I did ensure she got a little something she could enjoy all to herself. Or share if she happens to be in a benevolent mood. Love ya mom!

Today I am busy writing. I’m working on two different projects since I may have consumed a little too much sugar at some point already this morning. My muse apparently is having issues remaining focused on only one story at any given time so she has me hopping back and forth between the two. They are as different as possible with one being Contemporary, and the other Paranormal. At least I shouldn’t be bored, or run out of things to do.

The first bit of good news to share is that the second round of edits for C&M Security 6, Dangerous Reactions, has been submitted back to Evernight for another look see by my editor. I had to make one major addition to it so I think there may be a round three to come to check over any changes she felt were needed. Next on the good news train is that I’ve also seen the cover for this book, and all I can say is HOT! I’ll be sharing this very soon as well since it’s so flipping awesome.

And that I do believe is all the news I have to share today. So I will leave you all to dote on your mother’s, and enjoy the rest of this lovely, sunny Sunday. ~ Moira