This is about to be a huge week for me, so I’m taking a deep breath and sucking down extra caffeine (coffee, Diet Dew, Dew Kickstart … whatever it takes) and maybe a few extra M&Ms (plain, otherwise, it’s way more than a few).
Book 21. I have two chapters left to write. Polly ended up in a snowbank last night. Well, that’s not true – it was more like a cold, wet, slushy parking lot – you know the kind I mean. While that might not seem like a terrible thing, the person who did it was a very bad person and now she has to … okay, that’s enough information. Trust me, she’s about to kick butt. I’ll write that tonight. The weird thing is that when I write these exciting chapters, I find myself breathing fast as my fingers race across the keys. That probably means I’ll be in bed early.
The book should be finished tomorrow night, but that’s only the beginning. Since this is the first draft, I have a ton of cleanup to do. That will teach me to not pay enough attention to what my characters are telling me in the beginning of a book. By the time I’ve finished writing, they’ve clarified exactly what they meant and are insistent that I make sure it’s fixed. That will happen all day on Tuesday. Tuesday night, I’ll start through the manuscript again, looking for more things that need to change, extraneous words that need to be eliminated, and other issues (what character changed the pronunciation of that word to iss-yous in my head? drives me nuts) that jump out at me.
By Thursday, I will have printed the manuscript so I can read it in a different format. Everything is new again! My red pen is a tyrant. Not a page is exempt. It’s a glorious thing. Friday and Saturday will be cleanup days so I can get this to my amazing crew of editors and readers. (And thank you for offering, but I have all that I can manage right now.)
Now, if that were all that happened this week, it would be no big deal. However, there’s so much more.
Cover / Title. Max’s photography is consistently amazing, so yesterday I found the image that will be used for Book 21’s cover. Between now and next Sunday I need to find the title and build the cover. All quite do-able. It just takes silence and time to process. I have that. Yay.
Newsletter. It takes three or four days to put together a newsletter, so I’ll build the shell on Wednesday and add pieces the rest of the week so that on Sunday morning (the 25th – always the 25th of the month), it will arrive in your email inbox. Oh yeah. I’ll write a vignette for that, too. I’m not sure if I can top the last vignette with Beryl, Lydia, and Andy, but I’ll give it a shot.
Now for the big news. I’ve saved the wildest part of this week for last.
BIG SALE on the first eight Bellingwood books
On Friday, February 23:
The Bellingwood Boxed Set #1 (Books 1-3) will be $1.99 (regular price – $6.99)
The Bellingwood Boxed Set #2 (Books 4-6) will be $3.99 (regular price – $6.99)
Book 7 – Tomorrow’s Promises will be $2.99 (regular price $3.99)
Book 8 – Through the Storm will be FREE! (regular price $3.99)
That means that for five days – February 23 – 27 – your friends and family (and you, too) will be able to get the first eight books in the series (Kindle only) for NINE DOLLARS! Quite a savings from the regular price of $22.
These prices begin Friday, Feb. 23 and end Tuesday, Feb. 27.
On Friday morning (the 23rd), I will post a graphic and a link so you can share it – something I appreciate more than I can say.
~~~
A couple of reminders.
The audio book version of All Roads Lead Home is available now (click the title to go to Amazon). More audio books in the series will be coming.
Book List. If you have a question regarding what book comes next or what you might be missing, the only definitive list is to be found on my website – HERE. You can click that word and you can always get there by clicking the “Shop Now” button on the Bellingwood Facebook page.
Newsletter. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter that comes out on the 25th of each month. I promise not to spam you or do anything strange with your email address. Once a month – that’s what you get from me.
