No time to celebrate

No time to really write this out, but I’m doing it anyway, gol’darn it.

I finished the first draft of CR today.

But rather than celebrate, I get to work on Ashleigh Raine stuff as well as copywriting for Centric. Not that I’m complaining, but I sure hope I end up with an ounce of time to take myself back to Peet’s for a hot cocoa at least.

There’s nothing like the joy of being busy… But finishing a book is at least cause to drink some good cocoa… What’s the point of being busy if there’s no time to stop and celebrate every time a task is complete?

By the way. I started the first draft on March 7. That means draft one took me 14 weeks and 4 days… Or 3 months and 10 days.

Wow. That’s my record so far. BR took 4 months and 10 days and it was 10K shorter than CR. 7 months and 14 days for OR–but I took a month off while Jen and I were re-editing LT.

No wonder CR seemed to fly by…It did! I can’t wait to go back through and polish it, but I’ll be good and take a month off so I can have fresh eyes on it when I do open it back up.

I just noticed that all my books’ second word in their titles start with R. All 3 books are totally unrelated and they’re all in different genres, too. Strange.

Catching up…kinda

I’m back from the short, whirlwind wonderful time I had a BEA. I hung out mostly in the Ellora’s Cave booth, but did my fair share of walking the aisles. I was mostly looking to see what other publishers I can/should write for.

Lots!

I’m really excited about it all, too.

And while I was there, I finally came up with a real title for F. From here on out, F is hereby known as CR. Yaaaaaay!

Gearing up for RWA National has proven interesting so far. I’m trying to beef up my odd clothing wardrobe a little because people have seen most of the stuff I have…and I just can’t wear the same old weird stuff over and over, can I? Hell no. Not me. I gotta keep it all new weird, all the time. And it’s not like I don’t already have an enormous inventory of projects that need to be finished…or started.

So, today, I hacked the legs off a funky pair of jeans and a boring pair of jeans. The funky ones didn’t fit in the waist, the boring ones were too short. BUT–that means together, they’re perfect. I just have to add a ribbon to hide the seams and voila! Done.

Now I just have to do the rest of the skirts and pants and shirts and la-ti-da. My sewing goes in cycles. I go like gangbusters for awhile, then back far, far away. Something about being trapped in a room full of fabric and crafty stuff makes me go insane after awhile.

I’m almost done with my next book. ‘Course I’ll probably be saying that for the next month, but it’s still nice to say it now anyway. It sounds good…almost done. It’s got a nice ring to it.

I guess I should go work on finishing something…

Looking back…

I just reread my first post… Wow! A lot has happened since then. OR is done and BR has been submitted. The new one’s called F for now. I really gotta change it, though.

Aside from all that, I forgot to mention in the previous post that I’ll be attending BEA (Book Expo America) in New York, June3-4 for me. I should be at the Ellora’s Cave booth signing books at some point. I will also drop by the Writer’s Of the Future booth because Jason Stoddard (my dear hubby) won 1st place for 1st quarter 2003 and for some reason they have taken a liking to me as well as Jason. I don’t know why, but it’s really nifty to be welcomed the same as Jason. He’s not gonna be there, so I guess they’re kinda settling for me, but that’s quite all right by me! I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

I’m also gonna go to RWA National in Reno at the end of July and I’ll probably spend a few days at Comic Con which is mid-July.

I dunno why, but I’ve really started to take a liking to conventions. Does this make me completely deranged? I recall the old days, selling lighting filters, where going to conventions meant pure, boring hell and hard work. Then again, I was chained to the booth. And I won’t let any of that happen ever again!!!!!

Okay, now I’m just procrastinating… It’s time to write… Really… I swear it…

I dunno why…

It’s been eons since my last post, but here I am–for reasons yet unknown or at least psychically unspecified–posting again.

Perhaps I should do this more often…

Anyhow, since last I posted, I finished one novel and have gotten 70K into another, completely different one. Once I’m through the last bit on this one, I’ll go back and edit the other. I know it needs it.

At least I’m looking forward to it, though! During the weeks right after finishing it (middle or so of February), I was really dreading what it’d be like when I went back through.

But now, I feel refreshed and no longer remember what could have possibly been horrible about my book! Ah…time does that…And I appreciate it greatly.

All rightie then…Back to writing.

I’ve got a book to finish! (technically several, if you count what I’m working on for Ashleigh Raine, too.)

Happy Birthday to me!

From my old blog:

This being my birthday and all, I decided to make it my first blog entry as well. I plan to add frequently, but who’m I kidding? With the amount of writing projects I’ve got open all at the same time, I can’t promise which will get the attention when…this being my latest and hopefully longest lasting project!

As of today, my 30th birthday, my writing plate holds many titles. I write with Jennifer Martin as Ashleigh Raine and obviously as Rina Slayter even though my name is actually Lisa Stoddard. I think my plan is to just thorougly confuse myself while at conventions when people are using all of my names at the same time. Otherwise, I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.

Anyhow, with Jen as Ashleigh Raine, we are currently in progress on 2 projects. For simplicity’s sake, that’s ET and DTD. As Rina Slayter, I’m currently working on BR and OR. More details will be revealed later. At the moment, I’m just getting this blog up and running.

It’s all good, though. I’ve got lots planned. I’m a founding member of the Fictionados (Southern California’s only genre fiction writing group) as well as a Background acting SAG member. In other wor