LOST: My November

I could have sworn I had it right here. I was looking at it when I wrote my last blog post FIVE WEEKS AGO. It had some nice goals on it, some appointments, and a holiday. But I woke up this morning and realized I think I've lost it. It's gone.

And here I am on December first--STILL NOT WRITING MY NEXT BOOK. But, disappointed as I am, I have to once again give mad props to Scrivener for being such a freaking awesome program. I'm nearly done with the snowflake for MM--like, 18 scenes left to flesh out--and this is the longest this last step has taken me before. I was trying to figure out why, and I realized it's because the space where I'm writing all the scene details is so BIG. In the past I'd done this step in a spreadsheet, and even though I set the preferences so that the boxes would expand to fit whatever I typed, I still only had this teensy little box to look at while I wrote. And the small visual ended up limiting me. I wouldn't flesh things out as much as I could have, and I'd write in weird shorthand that would have me scratching my head later when it came time to actually write the scene. But this time around, I've got this nice wide column that just goes on forever, and I can type, type, type to my little heart's content and not worry about how small the space is I'm trying to squeeze everything into. And so, I *am* typing and typing and typing--including bits of dialogue that come to me, making notes to myself of things I want to make sure get mentioned in passing, even adding details like what someone is wearing if I think I might not remember when the time comes to actually write the scene. (And let's face it: I won't remember.)

So THAT'S why it's December 1 and I'm still not writing this book: because Scrivener is giving me the space I need to be as creative as I can be in this last snowflake step, which means once I do finally start writing it's going to go much, much faster. So it's all good, even if I am a whole month behind.

And speaking of being behind, I'm yet again doing major edits on Reinventing Rachel, which releases with Cook in September. It was supposed to release this past September, so you can't get much more behind than that. But wow y'all, this book is SO MUCH BETTER than I ever thought it would be. I'm really excited for you to read it. And for those of you out there who are slaving away on your manuscript, let me just say that Nicci Hubert is the absolutely best editor I've ever worked with. Which I'll admit isn't saying all that much since I've only worked with a few. And I've been blessed in that all the editors I've worked with have definitely be above par. But ho.lee.cow. If you *ever* have the chance to work with her, you must. MUST. If you could see the HUGE changes made from the first draft I submitted to her, to what we're working on now, you'd realize that the woman is some kind of editing superhero.

Alrighty--lunch is just about eaten, then I have phone calls galore to make (most definitely the worst part of my day--I HATE USING THE PHONE), then a small tome's worth of paperwork to fill out for yet another evaluation for PJ that is set for tomorrow, and then! Then! THEN I get to work on scenes and edits. Hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday. I promise not to let five weeks pass before writing again. I'll keep much closer tabs on my months from now on.