Writing-related accomplishments: Added 674 words to the WIP. The current scene is titled “More explosions” in Scrivener.

Yesterday we finished planting all 25,000 saffron bulbs. Various muscles in my legs and back would like to have a word with the management.

Last night I was confronted with this scene when I went to bed. I’d get a bigger bed but it wouldn’t fit in my room…

Writing-related accomplishments: added another 700+ words to the not-a-dragon novel. I’m packing it in a little early this evening because I need to get up early tomorrow to help plant a field of saffron.

(Ripley is armed and ready for war against the Crawford Clan.)

And now, a snippet from today’s addition:

The laughter of a salamander was a fiery cough.

Benson put his phone on his knee where he could read the screen. “Let’s try it this way. Close your eyes and I’ll run you through this relaxation exercise and then I’ll make something up.”

“Am I a guinea pig or a salamander?” she groused, but closed her eyes again, feeling the calming ocean breeze over her skin and the pull of the moon beyond the horizon.

“You are a shallow vessel. Oh wait, a hollow vessel,” Benson said. “Hang on, I need to increase the font size.”

Writing-related accomplishments: Queried another agent, this one requiring: bio, query, 20 pages, synopsis, one sentence pitch, target audience, and comps. Anyhow, I’m back up to ten active queries. I think I’m going to make a goal of 50 rejections for the year, although I’m not sure that’s possible with some of the response times. (And yes, this is a way to reframe something negative as a positive, but it’s either that or go mope in a cave for a few days every time another rejections rolls in and who has time for that?)

Added another 700 words to the WIP. I think I sort of know how it is going to finish. I just need to get it there.

I saw some great advice today along the lines of: If you don’t know where the story goes next, figure out the absolute worst thing that can happen to the protagonist.

And here’s a picture of the dogs to see us through:

So… the goals for August were a tad ambitious. I did get some things done though…

• Make one last pass through  ALL GREMLINS (C1) and then get the query out to the first batch of agents. (And then stop hyperventilating.)
• Get the next two chapters of ALL BASILISKS (C3) revised and submitted to YWC.
• Write the ending for the new novel (which still doesn’t have a name other than “Dude, Where’s My Dragon?”) and go back through and figure out what is missing. (This didn’t quite happen.)

I also ended up writing a synopsis for ALL GREMLINS which involved a whole lot of whining and then a bit of editing.

A little carrying over of goals isn’t the worst thing in the world. And this way I don’t have to think too hard about coming up with something new. Anyhow, here are the goals for September:

• Get an ending done on the rough draft of the dragon novel.
• Come up with a list of comparable titles (aka “comps”) for ALL GREMLINS because some agents want them.
• Keep a minimum of ten agents ignoring my query at all times (by which I mean when one rejects me I send the query to another one).
• Get the next chapter of ALL BASILISKS out to YWC.

I just need to have the same work ethic as the Little Dog when she’s digging a hole.

Writing-related accomplishments: Worked on the synopsis for ALL GREMLINS and cut it down to two pages, then sent out another query, bringing the active total to eleven. Then I tried to come up with comparable titles (comps) and that effort was less productive. I may have to visit a brick & mortar store to stare at what’s on the shelf in order to come up with something. Listing recent titles in the same genre with a similar tone is not an easy task. On the plus side, my to-be-read pile is now a lot bigger.

Beautiful Crow the cat didn’t have any comps suggestions either but she provided moral support anyhow.

Writing-related accomplishments: Got the number of submissions for ALL GREMLINS up to ten, which seems like a good number to start.

I’m hanging out with the chickens and the dogs this evening, so I’m going to try to get a bit more done on the untitled novel with a dragon.

Where has this month gone?

Writing-related things accomplished: Finally started sending out queries to agents. Now I can start stockpiling my own rejections so I’ll be ready for the next writers’ revolution.

The big dog gives me a nose boop for getting started.