Lucy Score's Blog: Lucy's News, page 3

SALE: MR. FIXER UPPER

Grumpy, protective Gannon King is on sale in the US and UK Amazon stores for 99¢ RIGHT NOW!
Here’s the teensiest sneak peek at THAT SHOWER SCENE…

She stood with her hands braced against the tile water cascading down her bruised and bandaged body. But she was alive. The part of him that had clenched into panic with Mel’s announcement finally released.
When she didn’t attempt to yell at him or shield herself from his gaze, a new worry bloomed. She was every color of purple across most of her back, and he cringed at the patches of gauze and tape that looked as though they were holding her together. Steam billowed around his head.
“I can’t wash my hair,” she said finally. Paige’s voice had none of its usual authority, just exhaustion and that jagged edge of pain that hurt him to hear.
He wanted to scoop her up and lecture her on set safety. But that wasn’t what she needed. She needed comfort.
Gannon studied her, hands on hips, for almost a full minute and then sighed. He started to work the laces of his boots loose. Toeing them off, he tugged his t-shirt over his head.
“Oh my God. What are you doing?” Paige’s voice barely rose above the spray from the shower head.
“I’m washing your damn hair.”
His jeans came next, and as his thumbs hooked into the waistband of his boxer briefs, Gannon noted that Paige’s head spun back to face the shower wall. The last thing she needed was to add whiplash to her ailments.
He stepped in behind her and pulled the shower curtain back in place.
“Gannon—”
“Save it. We’ll argue about this later.” He guided her head under the spray and brushed her hair back from her face.

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON, AUDIBLE, AND IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

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Mistletoe Kisser update!

A little background on The Mistletoe Kisser; this was released in December of 2019 (ah, those were the days) as a short story in a holiday anthology featuring Sammy the vet from Blue Moon Bend! Lucy decided to freshen it up and release it as a novella in December of 2020. Once she started digging into it, though, she quickly realized she was nowhere near ready to be done with Blue Moon. It’s now over 70,000 words and she’s not done yet! She loves it, and from the snippets she’s shared with me, I love it, too! I can’t wait for you to read it! Blue Moon, here we come, just in time for winter solstice, Blue Moon style!

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SCARLETT BODINE FOR YOUR EARS

Narrators: Natalie Duke and Stephen Dexter
Whiskey Chaser’s audiobook is finally live! You guys, Scarlett Bodine… I CAN’T EVEN!
Whiskey Chaser (Bootleg Springs #1) is available on Audible (use that credit, baby) and on Amazon with $7.49 Whispersync for Voice!

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HOW I WRITE

Several weeks ago, in a panic of “I have nothing to write about” I clued you lovely readers in on the pre-writing part of my writing process. And since zero people told me how boring and lame it was, it’s your fault you’re getting Part 2: How I Write. You have no one to blame but yourselves!

Take all of this with a grain of salt. This is my “perfect” day of writing when I’m behaving. I don’t always have a perfect day and I rarely behave.

The Setup
The process usually starts at noon. (Yes, I wish I could start earlier and get more done earlier in the day but so far I haven’t found the magic bean or right motivational meme to get my ass in the chair earlier. Whomp whomp.) I check my to do list for the day, leave my phone and smart watch in the kitchen. Next, I sit down at my hopefully cleaned off desk with my water and possibly some coffee, then I turn on my noise canceling headphones and cue up my playlist. I am a very distractable pers—did you just see the squirrel that ran by the window with an acorn the size of my face???

Where was I? Oh yeah. I use headphones to block out as much of the world as possible. For the most part, I listen to the same writing playlist (The Killers, Alicia Keys, Elton John, Macklemore, Chris Stapleton, Queen, etc.) every day. By the third song I’m not really hearing the music anymore because it works as a trigger to shift me into writing mode.

Next up in the “block out the world” strategy is setting my Stay Focused app on my computer to block the internet (or the most distractable parts of it) for X number of hours. If I can’t get on Facebook, I can’t accidentally lose 2 hours to it.

The Pre-Writing
I’ve found it incredibly helpful to take a notebook and freehand write what happens in the scenes I’m writing that day. Sometimes it’s just bullet points. Sometimes dialogue pops into my head. Sometimes it’s a brand-new idea that wasn’t even on the outline. This usually takes 5-10 mins unless I’m on a major roll in which case I follow the muse.

The Actual Writing
I have no concept of time. None. Every time the oven timer goes off, I’m convinced it malfunctioned because there’s no way 30 minutes just passed. Anyway, I keep a Time Timer with a white board on my desk. I set it for 25-minutes and I write. I’m ONLY allowed to write for those 25 minutes. No getting up for a snack. No checking email. No answering the video call from author friends. No pee break. Just writing.

If I’m stuck searching for a word or if I have an idea for something important I add a ** to the manuscript, describe what I need to fill that spot and move on. I do this for character names, descriptions of buildings, adjectives I can’t come up with. “What’s that color you get when you mix blue and red? Pink? Puce? Periwinkle?” I don’t wait for purple to pop into my head. I leave a **blue and red you idiot note to myself and keep going. The ** notes generally do not get fixed in the first draft.

At the end of every 25-minute sprint, I mark down my new word count in a spreadsheet that Mr. Lucy designed for me. This way I can see how productive I’m being with my time. It’s a real kick in the face when I see that yesterday at the same time I wrote 500 words in 25 minutes and today I only managed 32. Once I’ve recorded my word count, I set the timer for five minutes and get up and move around, snack, pee break, switch the laundry over, look at the squirrel.

Then I sit back down and it’s time for another 25-minute sprint. I perform really diligently when I’m sprinting with another author, but that means I either have an ongoing text convo or I have to keep opening Facebook and both of those are big no-nos. So I’ve been training myself to compete against myself and I started asking Mr. Lucy to check in on me periodically. That way he can yell at me for spending 40 minutes watching squirrels instead of writing.

I like to aim for between 6 and 8 writing sprints per day and can average 500 words a sprint WHEN I’M BEHAVING AND DOING ALL THE THINGS I NEED TO BE DISTRACTION FREE AND COMMITTED.

The End of the Day of Writing:
I try to aim for a certain word count within a certain number of sprints. Sometimes I hit it. Sometimes I don’t. I feel like a hero who just vanquished an evil villain when I’ve hit my goal and I feel like a big squirrel obsessed dope when I don’t. Every day is structured around hitting my word count goal within an allotted amount of time. Because if I miss my goal too many days in one book, it messes with the whole editorial calendar and creates even bigger headaches for Mr. Lucy than the ones he already has just from living with me.

And that’s how I write. It’s a constantly evolving process.

P.S. I feel like I should clarify that there are A LOT of squirrels in our yard. And they are very loud and attention-whorey. I don’t actually have a bizarre obsession, I just can’t help but notice them. There’s this one that wears his tail like a hat and when I asked him why… never mind.

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Have you read Riley Thorn yet?

Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy has been a resounding success so far! Have you read it? Did you love it? Did you review it? I need everyone to rave about it so Lucy writes a sequel! I need to know what Riley’s middle name is!

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check it out here: http://mybook.to/dgnd

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RILEY THORN LOVE

From Lucy: Thanks to your beautiful faces and one-clicking fingers, Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door hit #5 in the Amazon Kindle store! That’s HUGE. Mega huge. Gigantamoo if you will (my sister made that word up from gigantic and humongous. I think cheese balls and wine were involved).

“I freaking loved it!!! The mystery, romance, comedy, and suspense…it gave me everything I love all in one…” —Abby Garza

“Lucy you’re a genius! Thank you for the book I had no idea I needed in my life!” —Kristal Allen

“Thanks for the book hangover!!” —Maxine Bosko

“A freaking comedic masterpiece!” —Ellen Kessing

“I don’t think I have ever laughed so much while reading a book.” —Melanie Marnell

“Seriously amused by the color descriptions in RTatDGND. Shit brown, mud brown, pea soup green, jaundice yellow, urine yellow, morale-crushing gray…” —Deborah Fogt

“…only Lucy can fix a Lucy hangover.” —Casey Teeters (on why she was reading another Lucy book immediately after Dead Guy Next Door)

“WARNING: Lucy Score books are NOT SAFE in the time of Covid-19!! Lucy Score books will make you laugh and more importantly, snort. Snot may inadvertently come out of your nose! This is unsanitary and unsafe during this pandemic. You will need to sanitize! You will need to look around and make sure no one saw it happen! Beware and be safe!” —Suzie Mengelt

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COMING NEXT WEEK!

GET READY FOR AUGUST 27 WITH A FEW OF LUCY’S FAVORITE RILEY THORN MOMENTS:

Sure, she was divorced and broke and her stupid ex-husband was probably buying a new custom-tailored tux, but at least she hadn’t been mauled by a grizzly bear in the Canadian wilderness.

“I fell for the spray-tanned ‘good’ guy. I’m not going to rebound with the tattooed bad boy. We have disaster written all over us.”

“My lady parts are so rusty I don’t know if they could actually handle a night with Nick Santiago in my bed.”

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Last day for the Blue Moon Series sale!

Some of my personal favorite moments from this hippie, happy small-town series are:

Goat attacksHiggenworth Communal Alternative Education Day CareFitz stripping for Phoebe’s bachelorette partyThe astrological apocalypseThe Pierce brothers meeting Franklin when he climbs out of their mother’s bedroom windowEvery town meeting with Bruce OakleighNiko wrestling pigsBook ClubAurora’s makeovers on the Pierce brothers

INTENSE AUTHOR’S NOTE: Remember, if you haven’t read the series DO NOT start with Where It All Began. Or I will show up at your house—wearing a face mask, of course—and use a long, sanitized stick to lovingly slap your Kindle out of your hands.

SAD PANDA NOTE: I’m bummed that readers without US and UK Amazon accounts miss out on the Kindle Countdown sales. Hopefully, Amazon changes the sale capabilities for other international markets soon! ❤️ 

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STILL COMING AUGUST 27

You fabulous readers really showed up at the polls for Charlie Thorne’s new name! 5,438 of you to be exact. And while there was love for all names on the poll and a lot of suggestions for names not on the poll, there was a clear winner.

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The Dead Guy Next Door!

In case you didn’t hear, Lucy’s next book, Charlie Thorne and the Dead Guy Next Door is having to be renamed. It’s still releasing August 27, but with a new heroine name. Between the time Lucy did her Google name search and the time she announced the title, another author released a children’s book with ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME TITLE! Whoops! Luckily, there is still time to change the title and character’s name within the book. Lucy will announce the new title as soon as a new heroine name is picked! Stay tuned!

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