ROW80

It’s that time again—another Wednesday, another update. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea or cocoa), pull up a chair, and join me!

We made it through the first week of school (and my first moments as a parent of a middle schooler). Dance classes are good, orchestra is in full swing, and choir practice starts tonight. I’m a proud mama bear—my big kid is joining us! As part of his confirmation class, it was suggested the kids begin filling in with various responsibilities at church. Since music is kind of his “thing,” he’s going to try out being part of the choir.

Onward and upward with my writing updates!

ROW80:

• Write 1hr/day in Passing on Faith: √ Yep, but it’s all revision at this point. I nearly threw in the towel on my 80k+ novel this week, though. I was struggling to edit a passage that hadn’t gone as smoothly as I wanted. I think I’m on the right road now.
• Read 30min/day: √ Absolutely! I’m currently finishing a book I love in order to write a review.
• Write a 1 blog post/week other than ROW80/WIPpet: √ Wrote and posted Sunday night. And amazingly, my little blog post helped make a positive change!

WIPpet:

I’ve already introduced you to Micah’s BFF Zayne. I hope you liked her. She’s fun to write; I almost wish she were my BFF! Anyway, today, I’m giving you very little, but I’m introducing one more character I think you should meet.

My weird math: Both 9+4 and 10+2+1 = 13, so 13 sentences.

About five minutes after Micah returned to his room, his phone rang. There wasn’t a name, only a number appearing on his phone’s screen. He almost didn’t pick up, but he saw that the number had a Rochester area code. It might have been one of his students or parents calling about the summer assignments, or it might have been one of Zayne’s stepkids. He didn’t think he had either of their numbers in his contacts. He decided to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hi,” a woman’s voice replied. “Is this Micah Forbes?” She sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Micah, it’s Rachel Forbes. Your father’s wife.”

Guess you’ll have to come back next week to find out what she wants.

If you liked what you read and want to join the fun, post a bit of your work-in-progress (WIP) on your blog, connect it to the date by whatever mathematical means necessary, and hop on over to the link-up. Don’t forget to read the other entries and leave some love in the comments. Many thanks to K. L. Schwengel for giving us a place to play. Happy writing!

Howdy do, people? It’s that time again: WIPpet Wednesday! It’s been a good week. I got the final edits back on my novel, made the changes, and sent it back. Now the fun begins…just a little over two months til it’s officially out!

On to other things. Here’s my ROW80 update:

• Write 1 hr/day in Passing on Faith: Nope. But I have a good excuse. I was busy writing a short story and making the changes to my upcoming novel. My goals will be waylaid another week because I’m going out of town for the holiday weekend. Hopefully, once the school year starts, I’ll be back to finishing this thing.
• Read 30 min/day: √ Always. I finished two books since last Friday and I’ve started another one.
• Write at least 1 blog post/week other than ROW80/WIPpet: √ Two this week! A book review and my short story.

And here’s my WIPpet:

This is the last segment I’m posting in this section of Passing on Faith. I think we get the idea that 1. Micah is having issues and 2. Cat’s annoying but nice. Time to move on. But this is a bit more of their conversation from last week’s WIPpet. Next time, I’m moving on to a new plot point.

You get 2 + 7 = 9 short dialog paragraphs.

“My father was…” This was the part he’d always hated explaining. It typically produced one of two reactions: shock and dismay or shock and enthusiasm. He didn’t care for either response. He grunted. Might as well get it over with. “My father was a minister.”

“Uh…oh,” Cat said. “Okay.”

That hadn’t been what Micah was expecting. “Yeah. And he sort of owned three houses. Well, two of them belonged to the church, technically, but he more or less owned that, too.”

Cat paused in his scrubbing. “Let me guess. He left the other houses to the church and you got this?”

“Sort of,” Micah agreed. “More like, my brothers are living in the other two and I got this.”

At that, Cat’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s…interesting,” he said.

Micah rolled his eyes. “You can say it—that sucks. I was never Pop’s favorite son.”

“Why not?” Cat turned his back to Micah and started in on the stove top.

“That’s an even longer story.” He huffed. “Let’s just say Pop had more traditional beliefs.”

Like what you see? Want to come out and play with us? Thanks to our host, K. L. Schwengel, you can! Just post a bit of your work-in-progress, link it to today’s date, and add it here. Don’t forget to read the other entries. Happy writing!

I’m sorry that my post will be a bit short today. It’s my daughter’s birthday, so I’m off to celebrate with her by going to Build-a-Bear and the zoo. A few quick updates:

ROW80

• Write 1 hr/day in Passing on Faith: √ Sort of. Some days it’s a bit less, some more, but it’s averaging out.
• Read 30 min/day: √ Still keeping up. I’ve read several good books in the last few weeks!
• Write 1 post/week other than ROW80/WIPpet: √ Yup, just posted it.

WIPpet:

Here’s the end of the scene I’ve been posting the last couple of weeks. I’m too busy to move on to another section of the book this week. Hopefully, next week I’ll be able to let you see something further on in the story. No complicated math today; thirteen sentences for the thirteenth.

Cat smiled, but there was something behind it—something Micah could only identify as wistful, but that didn’t make any sense. He extracted himself from that thought and stood up.

“I should probably start working on something in here,” he said.

Rising from the chair, Cat said, “I’ll leave you to it—I have another job, so I need to go change. You’ll let me know if you need anything in the meantime?”

“Sure. Yeah.”

They moved into the hallway, and for whatever reason, Micah was reluctant to see Cat leave. Cat seemed to pick up on the hesitation because he smirked and offered the same almost-twitch of his hips Micah had seen the previous day. It made Micah laugh.

“I promise, I’ll be around,” Cat said. He ginned and ducked out the door.

Micah followed him out, standing on the porch to watch him go and wondering when he might see him again.

Thanks to K. L. Schwengel for making this blog hop happen. Be sure to check out the other entries and maybe add your own. Just put a bit of your current work-in-progress on your blog, connected to the date, and link up with us. Happy writing!

Happy Wednesday! I’m thrilled to be back. We took a trip to Cooperstown for the baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I’m back, better rested than I was on Monday. But I’m still very, very sore from the sunburn. Note to self: 5 hours is too long without reapplying sunscreen.

ROW80 Update:

Due to travel, I missed my writing goal, and I’m not sure if I’ll get to a blog post this week. We’ll see.

• Write in Passing on Faith one hour/day: Nope. Missed Saturday and Sunday due to travel.
• Read 30 min/day: √ Yep! Finished the book I was reading. Go, me!
• Write one non-ROW80/WIPpet post/week: Not yet. I’ll let you know Sunday.

On to the WIPpet!

For this week, I’m sharing part of Chapter 2. Micah is surveying the horribleness of the house he inherited and wishing he didn’t have to deal with it. I tend to think he’s avoiding dealing with a lot of things at the moment. This is still fairly lighthearted, but the story itself is overall taking a somewhat more angsty turn than I expected. This is a good thing, I think, but we shall see.

My WIPpet math: (7 + 3 + 0) + (1 + 4 – 2) = 13 sentences.

Although he knew he should get to work, that was the last thing he wanted to do. He flopped down on the couch, sending a puff of dust into the air which caused him to cough. Surveying the rubble from his meltdown the day before, he curled his lip in disgust. He leaned back, groaning, and ran a hand through his hair. It would be the perfect time to discover a magic lamp in among the knickknacks. If only he could produce a genie to make everything disappear.

A knock on the door startled him out of his miserable reverie. Hauling himself up, he slumped over to the door and opened it. There stood his new neighbor, notebook and cell phone in hand. This time, Cat was dressed in a vivid orange t-shirt—how he got away with that given his hair color was anyone’s guess, but it looked surprisingly good—and a pair of well-worn jeans. His Converse were the same shade of orange as the shirt. Under the v-neck collar, a thin gold chain peeped out. He still had the same dangling leaf earring he’d been wearing before, and now Micah had a better look, he saw exactly what it was.

I’ll bet you can guess. 😉

Thanks to K. L. Schwengel for hosting, as always. Don’t forget to check out the other entries and add your own. Just connect it to the date (see my math above for an example) and link up with us. Happy writing!