Weekly Update

Hi there.

It hasn't been a banner week for new words at the Sanderson household. I fell down on the job with Fertile Ground. I only got 5000 words out since last Friday. Part of the problem is, I'm not sure where to go from here. I didn't exactly paint myself into a corner, so there are several options for which path the novel is going to take. I just can't decide which one is going to work best. So here we all sit. Terri's only witness just skipped out on her, Rick isn't sure if he wants to be the hero of the story - especially since a hot but abrasive US Marshal just entered the story, and evil Adam now knows who Terri is, but he's not sure what he's going to do with the information. I really wish they'd tell me what they want to do, and I'm sure they'd all love for me to tell them what I want them to do. I guess we're at an impasse until I figure this out.

In other news of the week, I sent out a few more queries and received a request for partial from the first query I sent out on Blink. With this book, I've only received two replies and they've both been requests for material, so I'm feeling positive about it all. I don't think I've ever made it this far without a single rejection. (Almost makes me wonder if my ISP is filtering out the rejections somehow.)

And finally, I'm really making progress editing Nano. I inked up another five chapters last night, and I realized something important. I'm going to have to pull every villain scene and rewrite it. I thought I had his story down, but as I'm reading and inking chapters, I realize he doesn't ring true. He's confusing, and not only are his henchmen confused, but I'm confused. I can't imagine what a reader would think at this point. Long about Chapter 19, I found a scene I think I can keep in its entirety, though, so it's not all bad. I know the bad guy. I just need to find a way to communicate him to the readers. It's not fatal, but it'll take some work.

Other than writerly pursuits, this week was pretty boring. We got our first Severe Thunderstorm Watch of the year last night. It's too early, if you ask me. I'm not ready to think about tornado season - even if the new digs have a finished basement with TVs in every room. Thank goodness we just got rain. Lots of rain, but hey... we need the moisture. I don't think the profusion of worms trying to cross the road are appreciating it, but whatterya gonna do? Too bad I don't fish any more. There's enough bait to last a week out there.

Your turn. How are things in your world? Anything interesting to report for this past week? Tell me something good.