Elizabeth Schechter's Blog, page 14

Boom! Christmas Everywhere!

It’s November 1st! You know what that means, right?

Christmas everywhere!!! Never mind Thanksgiving, it’s the official start of the Christmas season!

Which… yeah, hold your horses there. I like Thanksgiving. And I’m of an age where the Christmas season doesn’t start until the Macy’s parade is over (and until the Hallelujah Chorus is sung at Darkover/Chessiecon… but that’s geeky me, not New Yorker me.)

But the Christmas season has been getting closer and closer to summer every year, and today I h...

Busy Week Ahead!

This week is going to be just PACKED!

To start with, words are flowing nicely with Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. They are not flowing linearly, but they’re flowing nicely.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)29387 / 150000 (19.59%)

What do I mean by that? Well, the chapters that I moved over from Crossroads revolve around Owyn. Who wants his resolution NOW, dammit. So when I hit a stopping point in the early chapters, I go and write more for him. And g...

It’s Monday Again

That just keeps happening, doesn’t it? Mondays, I mean.

I suppose the alternative isn’t very good. So we’ll keep the Mondays, and keep on plugging away.

Work continues on The Way Home, and Owyn and Alanar have once more surprised me. Not saying what yet, but when you get to the “Where did THAT come from???” in Chapter Three, know that I’m asking the same question.

 

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)22230 / 150000 (14.82%)

I’ll be finished with line edits o...

On Your Mark… Get Set… GO!

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)18295 / 150000 (12.20%)I finished edits on Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads, so I started writing Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home last week.No, I did not write eighteen thousand words in a week. (That would be something, though!) There were five chapters that were already written when I decided that Heir to the Firstborn needed to be two books. Last week, I actually wrote 4,830 words — Chapter One, and part of ...

New Beginnings Lead to New Endings.

This is it. I’m starting the last book in the Heir to the Firstborn series this week. I finished my first read-through of Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads (and discovered a couple of places where a Scrivener crash led to changes that I made not making it to the final document! Eek!) The manuscript is now in the hands of Darling Editor, and I’m starting Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home either later today or tomorrow.

It’s a little weird. I’ve been writing this series now for three years, ...

Home Again, Home Again.

This weekend was NecronomiCon, and we had an exceptionally good time. It was our first time back at a science fiction convention since 2019, and… well, okay, it was a little weird. I would not have expected quite so many people to be so… cavalier with regards to the convention’s mask requirement. I mean… we’re FEN! We’re smarter than that!

At least, I thought we were.

Definitely had a good time, though. Friday night was the return of the Writing the Naughty Bits panel, which I hosted, and which ...

Mondayest Monday Ever

Today is indeed the most Mondayest Monday ever.

On Friday, my windshield caught a kicked-up rock, and cracked. I’ve always been taught that you shouldn’t drive with a cracked windshield, so I got the car home, and set up an appointment through my car insurance to have the windshield fixed.

This morning, bright and way-too-early, windshield company shows up. They’re going to try to repair the crack first, because it’s not large and not in the direct line of sight. But injecting the resin made the...

Down Time and Catching Up.

I’m taking a week or two to rest my brain before launching into Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. I actually haven’t even started on the edits for Crossroads yet — I figured I’d work on them at the table at Necronomicon, and shoot to have them done by mid-October. Which means that the on sale date for Crossroads will probably be December. Once I have that set, I’ll announce it.

I realized just now that I’ve been sitting on the cover for Crossroads, too.

Choices must be made. But choices have...

Time to Clean!

I’m cleaning the house.

Now, if you’ve been with me long enough, you know what that means.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads IS FINISHED!!

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 5)126460 / 130000 (97.28%)

I figured out what the problem was Thursday night — I’d been slogging over one scene for nearly a week, and I finally took a step back and asked myself “What is the point of this scene? What does it do to advance the story?” Answer? There was no point to sc...

That’s a Draft!

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads. Thirty-nine chapters, complete at 126,460 words.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 5)126460 / 130000 (97.28%)