It turned out to be a cat exploded kind of writing day. I didn’t quite write two full chapters (more like 1.75), but I got 4200 words done, hit page 250, and am stopping in the middle of a fight/chase scene that’ll be easy to pick up tomorrow.
Page 250 is something of a landmark page. Even on longer books, it’s kind of the sign that there might be an end to this damned thing somewhere, but on the Bombshells, which are 360 pages max, it means you’d better have your shit together because you have less than thirty thousand words left.
In fact, I have about 21,000 words left. The Bombshells are being turned in now by exact wordcount instead of 250wpp x number of pages (360 pages=90,000 words, but my last two Bombshells, which were both 355 pages, were 78,500 words in actual count), due to discrepancies in fonts, margins, etc, etc, etc, used by different writers. (There’s a hell of a wordcount difference between a 360p ms turned in in Courier 12pt with 1.5″ margins and one turned in in Times New Roman with 1″ margins, f’rex, and that was causing problems with the … forget the official words. Line height and typeset and margins, anyway, in the books themselves.) I’m at 57K right now, and see no reason to not expect PHOENIX to come in at just about exactly the same wordcount the other two did. Furthermore, I’m writing at the top end of the exact wordcount; they’re supposed to be about 75K, with 5K range on either side of that. So I’ve got about 21K left. 6 or 7 chapters and the epilogue. Chugga chugga chugga. I love this job. :)
I started season 5 Highlander the other night. It was interesting to see Tracy Scoggins as Cassandra again, since the last time I saw her was as … whatever her name was, the commander on season 5 Bab5. My image of Cassandra had gotten conflated with the image of the commander, who … well, I donno how much plastic surgery Scoggins had done, or if her hair was just so tight it made her eyes bug out, but I thought she looked like a Barbie doll whose scalp had melted and stretched the face when they put the hair on. Consequently, I tend to think that the *idea* of Cassandra is more lovely than the *actual* Cassandra…which is still true, but it turned out she wasn’t as drawn and tense as the commander character, so I was happy to see that. I wonder what she’ll look like halfway through the season with the Horseman episodes.
Interestingly (to me, anyway), though, I’m not all that interested in watching Highlander right now. I think I’m writing the wrong kind of book. *laugh* I started watching La Femme Nikita, the first three episodes of which aren’t exactly awe-inspiring with their brilliance, but it’s apparently considerably more my speed right now. Go figure: I’m writing action-adventure romance, not fantasy, and it’s the action-adventure romance tv that appeals to me. :) Maybe if I watch Gilmore Girls I’ll be able to write chicklit!
In, you know. My copious free time. Maybe I’ll post my schedule for people to look horrified over, one of these days. :)
Sounds like your writing is going really good.
Have you noticed that whenever you try to not think about food, food is all you can think about! Joyce
Ooh…season five Highlander. Loved the first part of it, but I completely deny the last episode. Hee! Man, it’s been a while since I’ve seen them.
I’m trying to remember if La Femme Nikita actually gets significantly better, or if it just becomes addictive. I know that the more I watched, the more I wanted, and I know that there are some rather brilliant episodes, I just can’t remember if it improves overall.
I think what it really does well is make use of the combination of visual and auditory modes of storytelling.
Anyway – I’m glad your cat exploded.
You know, I’ve never actually *seen* the last episode of season 5? I donno if it’s also the one where Joe is offered his legs back, but I haven’t seen that one either. I don’t know what happened during the last couple episodes when I was watching them when they originally aired, but for some reason I’ve never actually seen the demon eps.
You know Adrian Paul started the rumor that got Richie killed, right? :)
*laugh* I’ve been working on the assumption that it actually gets better, since 1. first season tv usually sucks, and 2. people were SO INTO IT that I figured it had to improve. I’ll keep you posted. ‘course, I only own season 1 right now, and it’s not going to last very long if I keep earning 1 or 2 episodes a night (2K+ a day is 1 episode; 4K+ is 2. Presumably if I write 6K+ I get to have a tv binge. :))
Well, I’ve just purchased myself the first three seasons. They should get here by the time school is out, so I’ll be able to reward myself similarly. And then we can compare notes!
Count yourself lucky. It was a horrible, horrible episode.
*LOL* Somehow, I wouldn’t doubt that Adrian Paul would start that rumor.
Well, I’ll watch it anyway, of course. :)
Yeah. He started the rumor they were going to kill Richie, and Peter and Jim were sitting around before a scene one day and didn’t know the camera was on, and Peter said, “So did you hear they’re going to kill Stan?” and the writers, who had never thought of such a thing until they saw the dailies with that in it, said, “!”
So it’s all Adrian Paul’s fault. :)
Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me. My poor, poor Richie. *Huggles him*