scores

Almost… almost….!

Writing:

Total words today:  2,715 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

You might notice I’m over. And I’m not done yet. There’s about a thousand words or so of wrap up, which I’m hoping to get done first thing tomorrow morning.

Draft by TOMORROW!

Posted by EASchechter in Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, forthcoming works, Happy Holidays!, progress, Rebel Mage, scores, slow-writer-is-slow., Ta-da, The School, the-end-is-near, to-dos, wordcount, 0 comments

Today

Homeschool:

Today we went to see The Nutcracker, which was awesome. Neither of us have ever been to the ballet before, so this was new and nifty. J. really enjoyed it.

Baking:

  • an indeterminate number of spritz cookies (I lost count).

This ends the holiday baking for 2015.

Writing:

I would have written more, but Nutcracker and baking. Spritz cookies are time consuming!

Total words today:  877 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

 

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, forthcoming works, Happy Holidays!, Homeschool, Rebel Mage, round-up, scores, slow-writer-is-slow., Ta-da, the-end-is-near, to-dos, upcoming work, wordcount, writing-mom, 0 comments

In the home stretch

Homeschooling:

With the exception of a field trip, our homeschooling is done until the new year. J. completed 4th grade math today, and did quite well on the (unannounced) EOC test that I gave him (for my own peace of mind. This homeschooling thing is new. I’m still not sure I’m doing it right).

Baking:

  • 2 dozen molasses cookies

Writing:

Total words today:  1,046 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

 

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, forthcoming works, Happy Holidays!, Homeschool, progress, Rebel Mage, scores, Ta-da, the-end-is-near, to-dos, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments

Busy!

Homeschool:

Went to Yoga today, and finished up Life Science. We’ll finish Math and Handwriting tomorrow. The Odyssey will probably be done by the weekend.

Baking:

  • No baking today.

Writing:

Total words today:  1,135 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

 

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, children, Counsel of the Wicked, forthcoming works, Happy Holidays!, Homeschool, Rebel Mage, scores, Ta-da, the-end-is-near, to-dos, upcoming work, writing-mom, 0 comments

A very good day

Homeschool:

Still in wrap up mode. Math, handwriting and The Odyssey. Found a documentary on Greek myths, but it was a bit too graphic for a nine-year-old.

Baking:

  • Three dozen oatmeal white chocolate cranberry cookies
  • Three dozen more chocolate chip cookies, because the first six dozen are all gone now (between husband’s work and the school where J. goes for gifted.)

There will be no baking tomorrow.

Writing:

Total words today:  1,997 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

 

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, Happy Holidays!, Rebel Mage, scores, Ta-da, the-end-is-near, to-dos, wordcount, 0 comments

Today in Writing Life

Homeschool:

Wrapping up for the end of 4th grade math, finishing things up so we can start holiday on Thursday. J. started The Odyssey, and is enjoying it.

Baking:

  • 2 dozen Speculoos cookies
  • 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies.

Writing:

Total words today:  1,138 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

 

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, Happy Holidays!, Rebel Mage, scores, Ta-da, the-end-is-near, to-dos, upcoming books, wordcount, 0 comments

A light day.

Baking:

  • three dozen carob chip cookies (because allergies)
  • made the dough for speculoos cookies

Writing:

Total words today:  751 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, Happy Holidays!, Rebel Mage, scores, Ta-da, the-end-is-near, to-dos, upcoming work, WIP, wordcount, writing, 0 comments

For anyone keeping score

Baking:

  • Covered the three color cookies in white chocolate and cut them.

Writing:

Total words today:  1,172 words

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, Happy Holidays!, Rebel Mage, scores, the-end-is-near, to-dos, upcoming books, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments

End of the year scorecard

It’s the end of the writing year! I have a novel ALMOST done. I also have baking to do.So, let’s have some accountability.

Today’s score?

Homeschooling:

J. finished reading The Iliad. He also finished his 4-H Butterfly Wings workbook and took his second to last weekly quiz in 4th grade math. Cursive is coming along nicely, too. On target to finish 4th grade math next week. Debating on starting The Odyssey now, or waiting until January.

Baking:

  • one batch of coconut macaroons.
  • baked the layers for three color cookies and sandwiched them.
  • a dozen gluten-free cupcakes
  • one slightly odd Winnie-the-Pooh cake with leftover cupcake batter. (Well, I had this pan, you see…)

Writing:

As of 3:45 PM: No words yet today

Update as of 9:44 PM: 1,298 words.

Total words on Burden of Truth: Book Two of The Rebel Mage

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Burden of Truth, Counsel of the Wicked, Happy Holidays!, Homeschool, Rebel Mage, scores, the-end-is-near, to-dos, wordcount, writing-mom, 0 comments

>You can't please everyone…

>…and really, why are you going to try?

So I got my scores today for the Royal Palm Literary Awards (the annual contest for the Florida Writers Association). I had entered “The Succubus”  as published short fiction.

Near as I can understand this, the story is read by three judges. If you get three scores of 34 or higher (and I’m not sure if they average them or take them on face value), you’re in the finals. Now that I have my scores, I can see that I wasn’t in the finals. And I can see that there’s absolutely no purpose to me entering this contest again. Because apparently they’re not looking for genre fiction. They want “literary”, and I know for a fact that I will never be “literary.”

One judge scored 45 (highest you can go is 50). This one LOVED it. Only one nit, but what they’re picking about really is proper period language. I researched it.

One judge scored 33. Didn’t connect to the characters, said it was too much like reading porn. (no, really?)

The last judge scored 19. Didn’t get the point, didn’t GET that The Succubus was a machine. Was annoyed that there was no character growth in the POV character (i.e, the machine.) and that they didn’t think the readers could identify with a machine. (the first line of this scoring section was “I have a big problem here.”)  Said that the reader would not feel enlightened or pleased after reading (really? My readers disagree) and said that while there was probably a market for this kind of thing (!), that it did not fit the “general mainstream of short stories for general readers.” Oh, and he said that if they weren’t a judge, they wouldn’t have finished. (Now that one, I can understand. I’ve read contest entries like that. However, when I have that reaction, it is because of bad grammar, worse dialogue and a plot with holes big enough that   you could slalom through them. This judge had no complaints about my writing — it just wasn’t their cup of tea and they raked me over the coals because of it).

I think I need to stick to contests that actually have a science fiction category. Because all these people know of steampunk is what they see on NCIS and Castle. (However, Castle was pretty good.)

Posted by EASchechter in contest, scores, 1 comment