IT'S BEEN A WHILE

I know it’s been nine days since my last post, but I’ve been EXTREMELY busy marketing it especially since being surprised when my book appeared on Amazon as soon as I’d approved its release, instead of the several days I’d been originally advised.

The link to my debut YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel is http://www.amazon.com/Kissed-Ghost-Robin-Leigh-Morgan/dp/1480030031

The novel is also available on Amazon.co.uk Amazon.de

Amazon.es Amazon.fr Amazon.it

 

I’ve visited Amazon.com a few times already, however I haven’t looked at the sales ranking yet; and I’m not going to until after New Year’s Day, Wednesday, January 2^nd after lunch. I want to see know well my initial marketing efforts have done. Before I began to write this entry, I checked the number of “LIKES” I’ve received so far every day around this time, and at last count I’ve received 21.  Hopefully, this will, when I check my sales ranking on Wednesday it will show a “decent” figure.

Since my last post I’ve also returned to writing my next novel, and have only written one additional chapter, and the word count so far stands at approximately 21,500.

The only thing different in the way I’m writing this novel is I’m formatting each page as I write, and what I get is a page resembling an actual page out of the book it. My goal each day I write is to type two such pages each day I write. I’d like to be finished writing the first draft by the end of April, before I begin the re-reads and editing.

Thanks for being with me as I made my maiden journey to authordom and continuing on to its marketing. I’d like to do blog interviews and perhaps a guest blog somewhere.

Lastly, I’d to invite everyone to follow me on

TWITTER = http://www.twitter.com/mypennameonly

FACEBOOK= http://www.faceboo.com/mypennameonly

Wishing all my followers and your families a VERY Happy New Year

MY DREAM HAS FINALLY BEEN FULFILLED

Things are happening at an unbelievable rate now. No sooner did I post my previous entry than my doorbell rang. UPS was there with the PROOF COPY of my book in hand. Needless to say I had been totally surprised as the item must have been shipped so fast that the tracking information didn’t have a chance to appear on my account.

The excitement didn’t stop there, I called CreateSpace to advise them I’m ready to release the book, they walked me through the finalization steps for the book to appear on my e-store so I can sell the book more directly; and the instant I pressed “publish my book” it was there. At this point, I had been advised it would take a few days for the information I entered for my e-store to cross over to Amazon.com.

From the moment I typed the first word of my manuscript until the moment my finger typed the final period, the experience can best be described as being on a roller coaster--an experience which I wrote about on website/blog and duplicate on my three other blog sites.

So with this my dream of becoming an author has finally been fulfilled, because my debut novel, a YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance, entitled “I Kissed a Ghost” has at long last been finally  released.

You might say my day couldn’t get any better, but, it did…WHY?  Because, when for curiosity sake I decided to check Amazon.com for my book, it was already there, available for everyone to purchase and enjoy. [Naturally, I couldn’t believe this, so I called, and became ecstatic when I got inform my book is indeed LIVE.

 My book is currently available on Amazon at

http://www.amazon.com/Kissed-Ghost-Robin-Leigh-Morgan/dp/1480030031

England/U.K.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kissed-Ghost-Robin-Leigh-Morgan/dp/1480030031

 It will also be available shortly for

Germany

http://www.amazon.de/Kissed-Ghost-Robin-Leigh-Morgan/dp/1480030031

Spain

http://www.amazon.es/Kissed-Ghost-Robin-Leigh-Morgan/dp/1480030031

 France

http://www.amazon.fr/Kissed-Ghost-Robin-Leigh-Morgan/dp/1480030031

Italy

http://www.amazon.it/Kissed-Ghost-Robin-Leigh-Morgan/dp/1480030031

For those who live in any other country you’ll have to use the Amazon site you normally use to ordering your books. I expect to have the Kindle edition available in a few weeks which will increase the distribution area to those countries that can get Amazon kindle for their geographic area.

If anyone is interested in having a better idea of what my book is about, and to read a little of it, I’ve posted several UNEDITED SNIPPETS here on my blog, under the category of GHOSTLY WHISPERS.

ANY DAY NOW

The best laid plan of mice/man...you know how it goes. I had some unforeseen problems before I could give my approval and be able to get the PROOF COPY of my debut novel. Right now it has been shipped and as I as I receive it, barring any problems, I can give my final approval and have it released.

What this means is now I've got to finish devising the marketing plan for my book, and to begin putting some of the ideas into action.

Hopefully this afternoon, after a quick re-read of my second novel, this time it's a still untitled adult Contemporary romance with a paranormal back story connected to it.

A QUICK QUICK UPDATE

TO ALL MY WONDERFUL FOLLOWERS

This afternoon I gave my approval for the cover of my book, and the set up for the text on the back; which means I should be receiving a PROOF COPY of my book in about five days.

Once I give my approval after receiving it, the long awaited release of my debut novel should take place about three days later on Amazon.com

When it does, I'll supply the direct link there.

It's hard for me to accurately relate how I'm feeling right, having a dream of finally writing and publishing a full length novel. But those who've already been here with their first writing endeavor know precisely how I feel.

MY 2nd NOVEL - THE JOURNEY STARTS ANEW

Well with my first writing endeavor making the way to its’ release day, and my having taken a few days rest from writing, I’ve returned to the world of imagination as I restart my second writing endeavor.

I orginally started my second journey of being an author while still writing my first novel, I Kissed a Ghost. Has you’ve read in my other entries I suffered from writer’s block and my muses wouldn’t leave me alone unless I wrote something, I did, and the only version I could find had ten chapters /17,800 [I might have had more but this is what I could find.] Yesterday, I restated by second journey by re-reading and tweaking the first chapter; and naturally looking at what I had written with a set of “new” eyes I’ve made changes.

It should take me a few days before I should be able to write any new material. This time I’m writing a yet still untitled adult Contemporary Paranormal. Another change I’m making this time is I’m writing everything as it would appear on an actual page of the book. I figure if I do this now, I’ll be able to save time formatting the pages when I’m ready to submit the manuscript for publication. Naturally when I get ready to deal with my editor again I’ll change everything to 8 x 11 doubled-spaced pages.

Stayed tuned to my future postings to follow what’s happen, and tell your friends about my blog.

THANKS

MAJOR EVENT OCCURRED YESTERDAY

To all my WONDERFUL FOLLOWERS:

A major event yesterday morning in regards to my debut novel, I Kissed a Ghost, I approved one of the second of two covers. In additional to doing this I also:
1 - Submitted the text [BIO / SYNOPSIS ] for the back cover.
2 - Submitted the interior title /copyright/dedication and acknowledgements pages.
3 - Finally submitted the text for the novel itself after a lot a tweaking to make sure each page looked the way I wanted it to, including the headers for each page [odd numbered and even numbered pages]

What this means is by the end of this week, if all goes well, I should received a PDF.file for my entire book. And once I review this file and give my approval I then will be able to get a PROOF COPY of my book—a copy where I can inhale the luscious aroma of the ink on its freshly printed pages. Making sure this copy is the way I want my book to make its’ appearance into the world, I then give my final approval, and a few days later it will be FINALLY RELEASED at long last, and I can start the hard work of trying to market/promote.
Remember. I’ve posted several UNEDITED snippets from my novel on my website/blog and my other blog sites—so you can read some of what it contains.

THANKS for being with me as I made my maiden voyage to become a published author. And be sure to stay around as I embark on writing my second novel, this time an adult Contemporary/Paranormal Romance. I might even decide to endeavor to write a third novel [another YA] as I write my second.

Please feel free to tell your friends and family about my blog here as well as my Twitter account. http://www.twitter.com/mypennameonly

IT'S ALMOST SOUP

Today I finished formatting the pages of my book making sure all my margins are correct. I checked each page [two at a time] to see if the paragraph indention is correct for each paragraph. The right and left page margin are such the all sentences [except new paragraphs] go from one side of the page to the other.

I had some special formatting to do, where I had my characters chat on a computer. I did this by double-spacing between each character’s chat entry, i also intend the chats more and ended each line when it reach a certain point before the end of a regular line of text for the book. The overall look of doing this works, you can clearly see what each of the characters is chatting about.

So right now I’ve printed out the entire manuscript [2 pages at a time] so I verify how each page of my book will look when it’s finally printed. Time consuming YES, but the end product is worth it.

Once this step is completed, it’s time to format all this work as a PDF.file for submission to CreateSpace.com. It is here, I’m also going to submit my bio for the book’s back cover, as well as a brieft synopsis.

Right now I’m still waiting to receive two concepts for the book’s front cover.
Hopefully, if all goes well, I should have a PROOF COPY of my book in my hands by the end of next week, with the final release of I Kissed a Ghost, a few days later.

Follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates.
http://www.twitter.com/mypennameonly

TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE

Monday I got a set of two concepts for the front cover of my book, however I got a disappointment in that both were not age appropriate. Someone must have not read the answer I gave for the target audience for the book [girls, between the ages of 12-14[15]. I'm not blaming no one, just putting it as an unfortunate delay in getting my debut novel release.

I've just finished writing my bio, as well as the synopsis [teaser] for the back cover, and I need to gave it look at by my editor and another author I know.

The tweaking continues, good thing as I've found a real world inconsistency that existed in the manuscript which needed to be corrected.

Anyway, Friday if all goes well, I should be receiving another two concepts for the book's cover; at which time I should have also received feedback for the back cover's bio/teaser synopsis.

Hopefully by Sunday I should have totally completed by tweaking concentrating on the words, "THAT" / "WHICH" / "WOULD" [again]. Once this phase is completed I'm going to format the interior [page number, margins/interior margin of some dialogue, and place of chapter pages, are correct] I'm going to design the title page, write the dedication/acknowledgment page, as well as the copyright page.

Hopefully when all is set and done, I'm hoping I can release "I Kissed a Ghost" by December 7th.

THE NEXT BIG THING

Nicky Wells [ http://nickywellsklippert.wordpress.com/ ] Author of Sophie’s Turn [Part 1 of a 3 part trilogy], has invited me to take part in a blog event entitled THE NEXT BIG THING - a series of questions and answers about what’s happening next in my writing life. Here are the questions and my answers

What is the working title of your next book?
I Kissed a Ghost

Where did the idea come from for the book?
Just pure imagination

What genre does your book fall under?
YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kissed

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
What happens after a girl gives a boy her first kiss [on his cheek] just before she moves away to a
house haunted by a young ghost her age, named George?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I don’t have the patience of waiting months to hear back from one publisher at a time and I want to avoid getting rejected, so I’m going the self-published route through CreateSpace [here in the US – it’s owned by Amazon.]

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Total time = approximately 300 hours

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Since I haven’t read many books in the past several years and especially given the age group this novel is written for, I have no comparison to offer.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’ve written numerous items for a community newspaper and I just wanted to see if I could something in fiction. It started out as a lark but soon took on a life of its’ own and I got hooked on trying to write an entire novel.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It’s the [double] surprise climax at the end.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Since all the characters in my book are young adults I can’t say, just audition for new stars.

And that’s my Next Big Thing. Here are the writers I’m tagging: rock on!
Micky Peluso – http://mallie1025.blogspot.com Author – “And The Whippoorwill Sang” -- This is a wonderful, poignant, funny and tragic account of a family's life.

Laura McHale Holland - http://lauramchaleholland.com/author/admin/ Author of “Reversible Skirt” [memoir of her youth] and “The Ice Cream Vendor’s Song” - [collection of her flash fiction ] She continues to write wonderful flash fiction for her website.

Linnea Huritz-Larsen - http://linneann.wordpress.com/ Wonderful poetry that touches the heart.

Sharla Shults - http://www.awakenings2012.blogspot.com/ I just love the variety of topics she bring up in her blog.

The fifth spot… is open for YOU, if you want to take part. Don’t be shy, go on, I’d love to hear about your WIP! Please respond by Sunday, November 25th So I can tag you to continue to carry the baton on Wednesday

TIME FOR ANOTHER STATUS REPORT

This past Wednesday morning [11/7] I had my first telephone conversation with the design team from CreateSpace for the front cover of my first novel. We discussed what elements I’d like to have present in the cover; since the title of my novel is I Kissed a Ghost, you can imagine what two elements will definitely be there. They advised me it would take five business days to get back to me, which will make it next Friday, November 16th.

I’m still in the process of entering the tweaks I made to my edited manuscript into Microsoft WORD, and along the way, needless to say, I made a few more. Once I’ve completed this, I plan to do a few searches for key words which hopefully will tighten up the story. These words are words which every author, especially those like myself have decided to go the self-published route, definitely needs to look for. The words I’ll be looking for is

“NOT” - contractions are used in colloquial speech so I’d need to “didn’t” instead of “did not” / “couldn’t” instead “could not” , etc.

“WAS”/”WERE” - To try to eliminate as many passive sentences as possible.

“THAT” - is very often an unnecessary word which when removed doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence, and at the same time can increase the flow of words as someone reads it. “THAT” I feel creates a mental pause in reading.

“WHICH” - making sure it hadn’t been used instead of “THAT”

And lastly, I even got to write another chapter for my still untitled contemporary paranormal romance.

YEAH PROGRESS !!!

STATUS REPORT TIME

Living in NYC as you might have guessed as impacted the entire city beyond belief. The area, aside from several trees, I live in luckily didn’t suffer any severe damage. The subway system has been 80% restored already, and the rest of the city is coming back to life. Our mayor had finally decided to cancel this year’s NYC Marathon, only after pressure from local politicians, community leaders, who stated the valuable resources which would have used to oversee the running the marathon need to be put to better use serving the citizens of the city to get back to normal.

Anyway, my twitter acccount has been hacked and numerouse mass DMs have been sent out without my knowledge—blocking from sending out DMs I need to sent out. I have changed my password twice in the past week, and twitter had to reset my password as well for the second time, due to their feeling my account had been hacked.

Right now, a week has gone by since I first contacted CreateSpace to design the cover for my book and I anticipate it will take another four to five weeks for it to be completed. In the meantime I’m still in the process of entering the final changes I’ve made to a hard copy of my manuscript. It’s a good thing, as I’m still finding a few tweaks which need to be made, including a “major” error in continuity in which I had written something has happened for the first time TWICE.

As far as the status of my entering these changes are concerned, I’ve completed entering 20 Chapters out of 40 [50%] ; 127 pages out of 262 [48.5%]. In addition, I’ve also added an additional three pages with an additional 698 words. You might be asking the question of why so many words have been added, the answer is this is normal. When you’re writing your manuscript, you’re constantly seeing on a screen in front of you, when you’re hold it in your hands and manually making the changes as you read your manuscript aloud. Now that you’re entering your changes into your document program, you’re using a different set of senses. What is most interesting of all I’ve found out from even the traditionally published authors I know, that even though their book had been published for a few weeks there are change they’d have like to have made before their book got published.

I anticipate I should be finished this phase [entering my changes into WORD] by Tuesday or Wednesday. Once this is completed I can return to writing my next still untitled novel, an adult Contemporary Paranormal Romance, where I’ve already written 8 Chapters consisting 82 pages with approximately 18,600 words.

JUST TOOK ANOTHER MAJOR STEP CLOSER FOR MY BOOK

Well here we are, 1:00 AM, Tuesday, October 30, 2012; and I’ve just finished my final review of the last page of my edited manuscript, in a slight delay caused by the turmoil of Hurricane Sandy.

This means when I wake up later today I’ll have to start entering the manual changes I made on the hard copy I’ve been working with. In additional, this process will allow me to double check my changes for the last time. Given that I’ll need to use a second font in some portions of my manuscript, I’ll be setting up my fonts on my own so I should have no problems when the interior pages of my novel is set up.

I’ll be doing a daily status report every morning of what I’ve accomplished so far from the day before on Twitter. So if anyone is interested in following my progress, you can do so by becoming a Twitter follower here:

http://www.twitter.com/mypennameonly

A MAJOR STEP HAS BEEN TAKEN

Yesterday I decided to take my first real major step towards having my first novel published. I called CreateSpace and started the procedure to produce the front and back covers for my first novel. I selected the package which would best suit my needs and paid for it. Now I've got to complete the questionaire they sent me and return it to them--thirty minutes later I can call them to discuss my answer in greater detail so they can understand my needs better. I've been advised it can take about six weeks to complete the process which gives me amble time to complete my final review of my edited manuscript. However, I'm not one to wait to the last minute, and I'm aiming to complete my hard copy review and enter all the changes into word. And as of yesterday, I'm more than 36% completed.

Once I've completed the entry of my final changes, I can begin working with CreateSpace to help format the interior.

Since all my writing efforts are now being concentrated on getting my book published, the writing of my next novel is being put on the back burner.






PROGRESS IS BEING MADE ON BOTH FRONTS

It’s a great feeling when things come together and progess can occur on more than one project at the same time. In the last three days, I’ve reviewed three more chapters consisting of fifteen additional pages. And my stats for reviewing my completed manuscript now stands at nine chapters out of forty being being complete, consisting of a total of fifty-five pages out of 265. Hopefully this will translate to having my review totally completed by next Sunday.

When I take a break for doing the review for my completed manuscript, and if I have nothing else to do, I return to writing my next novel. And in the past three days, I’ve written two more chapters consisting of fourteen new pages and about 2,700 new words. This brings the total for my next manuscript to nine chapters, eighty-two pages, with approximately 18,600 words.

If I continue at this rate for my next yet untitled novel, an adult contemporary/paranormal romance, I might be finished about the same time my first book is release. And the only question I have so far is what name I should to write it under. Should it be different, especially since my second novel will be adult, instead of a YA [young adult] which is the genre of my first book.

THE FINAL TREK HAS BEGUN

Well yesterday I finally got my ream of green paper, so now I can finally start doing my last in-depth review I’d mentioned previously. I’ve got my pen and paper ready at my side to take notes as to characters and events in order to have a continuity present through the story.
I really wanted to start today, however as I wrote in a previous entry, the best laid plans of mice and men oft time go astray, and this time it was no exception. And since it’s going to take several weeks to get the cover designed [a timeframe I hadn’t anticipated], I’ve got an open ended window to complete this final trek to publication and release into the world of my first novel, a YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance. I Kissed a Ghost.

With this minor setback, I can now also devote some time to the writing of my next yet untitled novel, a contemprorary/paranormal romance. When I reported my status regarding this endeavor the last time, I only had five chapters, forty pages with about 9,300 words. Since then I had asked someone who’s blog I follow and participate on a regular on-going basis whether she would be so kind as to give me feedback on my first four pages [not much - but enough to give her a taste of my writing style]. End result, she loved what I had shown her and wished she could read more; she also gave me some pointers which I’ve already put into place and now those first forty pages are now forty-four with approximately 10,500; one these had been to intensify my writing. And as of today, I’ve written seven chapters with 68 pages and approximately 16,000, and if I continue at this rate, the first draft of this manuscript might complete about the same time as the release date for my YA nove, the beginning of December.

So THANKS for following me here on BlogSpot.com :-) :-) :-)

EVEN THOUGH MY MUSES HAVE CALMED DOWN -- PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE

As I wrote in my last entry my muses had run amok and I had completed writing five chapters with approximately 9,300 words. Since that frenzied day of writing I’ve completed two reviews of my editor’s proofreading and editing. I wanted to start my last review, a review consisting of a detail review of my story’s continuity making sure I’ve not changed things without indicating how and when it happen, making sure characters have not gotten mixed up, and making sure no questions have gone unanswered in regards to things which have occurred has the story line progressed.

I do this using a hard copy printout on green-colored paper, I find this color paper to be easy on my eyes, etc. The fact of the matter is, I didn’t have any and I still don’t. Each time I’ve intended to go to Staple’s something got in my way of going there.

Now getting back to the writing of my second romance novel, I had another chapter bringing the total to six chapters with about 10,500 words, when I decided to give about the first four pages to one of the authors I follow on a regular basis, who graciously agreed to critique them. When I finally received the critique, I became happy hearing she liked what she read and it made her want to read more. I became ecstatic. She also gave me some great pointers on how to improve on what I’ve written.

Given I didn’t have the colored paper I needed, I proceeded to follow the advice I’d been given. And in the past five days I completed a total revamping of my story so far. I’ve intensified the action in several scenes, I’ve added conflict between two characters in one part, and increase the emotion being created in others. All-in-all I feel I’ve greatly increase the readability of the novel’s story.

So tomorrow, come hell or high water I’m going to Staples, get my much needed green paper. I’m also going to set a two week limit, ending on October 29th to complete this task. Hopefully if everything goes as I’ve planned my first novel will see the light of day between the middle and end of November, just in time to get my book as a gift for the holidays

HELP !!! MY MUSES ARE RUNNING AMOK !!!

HELP! HELP! HELP! My muses are running a amok, and I need a way to calm them down.
We, as authors are always seeking assistance to help us write our manuscripts. We love the ideas they give us, especially when we're suffering from writer's block.
 
If you read my last post, you'll know that I've already received the final pages of edits for my YA Paranormal book, I Kissed a Ghost; and that I've begun writing my next novel this past Friday, this time it's going to be a contemporary paranormal romance. I felt great Saturday night before retiring to bed, because by then I had written two chapters. consisting of eleven pages with approximately 2,700 words.

But the moment I woke yesterday morning things were about to change, and change drastically. I say this because instead of being able to gather my thought as I typed, my muses appeared to be "gun ho" about my writing. I felt as if they had taken a whip to me, causing me to think of every word to write faster than I could type them. Needless to say I was totally spent by the time I wanted to go to sleep, and had no idea of what I had accomplished in writing my new endeavor, no idea that is until I got out of bed and went to my computer.

There in black and white were the facts, facts which I checked and double checked not believing what I had actually written in the frenzy created by my muses. The facts are what they are, and I was astonished that I had written so much in a single day. How much did I type yesterday? What would say if I told you that by the end of the day, I had written three whole chapters consisting of twenty-nine pages containing more than 6,600 words.

For those of you who are for some reason keeping track, in the three days since beginning this new manuscript, I've written five chapters [forty pages containing approximately 9,300 words]
So today, and perhaps most of this week, I'm going to resist my muses input no matter what it takes

PROGRESS. PROGRESS. PROGRESS.

As you read in my last post on the 27th, I’ve gotten back the edits for Chapters 35-39 on Thursday, after which I sent the real final chapter to my editor. I received this final chapter back from my editor, she said she liked the different way in which I ended the story.
Anyway today I entered her edits into my actual manuscript and asked two questions regarding them. The great thing is she has already answered them. Right now she’d like me to finish entering her edits, polish the manuscript off, and move it along to get published. This is something I definitely want to do more sooner than later.

As far as my muses are concerned, I’m well underway starting my second novel. Yesterday I wrote one chapter consisting of six pages and about 1,400 words; and today I got five pages written, with about 1,300 words. So with these eleven pages and 2,700 words done in two days, if I can keep this rate up, I might be able to complete this yet untitled writing endeavor in about a month or at the most two. This is barring any distractions such as my muses telling me to write something for the YA novel they had given me at the same time as the one I’m currently working on.

I’ll be posting daily progress notes on my twitter every morning, so follow me here = http://www.twitter.com/mypennameonly

My current writing endeavor will be a contemporary romance with paranormal elements throughout.

EVERYTHING'S GOING AS PLANNED !!!

As I said in my of post of  Sunday. September 23:

“It’s about 1:30 here on the east coast, so later this morning when I wake up I’ll be sending a total of four chapters to my editor; leaving the final chapter as a “surpise”/second ending to my novel. As it stands now I have about 260 pages / 66,900 words.”

When I received her edits on Tuesday and she had responded like I thought she would, she didn’t expect the ending I had written at the end of Chapter 39, and said she liked it a lot, and like me she’s looking to seeing my book in print.

With her edits in hand on this past Tuesday, I sent the real last chapter, Chapter 40.  When I did, I told her that I had been untruthful by telling her she had read/edit everything for my novel.  You might say that I fooled her, and you would be right. I also told her that I couldn’t end my story on such a sad note, and that I still had a "loose" end that I haven't taken care of yet, and that she’ll see it was when she reads it.

Reading her response this time, I smiled.  She called me a brat for having kept her hanging in the way I did, and that I was sooooo “bad” for doing it. Given this, I can’t wait until she reads his, all four pages of it.

The other thing I did this past Monday was to start writing one of the two ideas my muses gave me while I was finally approaching my typing that elusive final period.  One of the ideas my muses gave me was for another YA, the other was for a contemporary paranormal romance.  The contemporary one seemed clearer in my mind, so I began writing and wrote three pages with about 925 words.  With this novel beginning its journey to the day its final elusive period gets typed, I wonder with my muses will allow me to write both stories at the same period. If I do try to write both of these same stories at the same time, I know my muses will be fighting to see which one gets worked on each day. So anyway, its Thursday and I’m enjoy having nothing to do regarding writing, and I’ll wait a few more days before I jump back in, that is unless I get the urge to write something again…you know how those muses can be.  J

THINGS JUST SEEM TO HAVE A WAY OF HAPPENING

When I made my last post yesterday [9/22/12] I still had no real idea of which way I should go to reach being able to type that final elusive period for my first YA Paranormal/Time Table/First Kiss romance novel.  And boy, how much a difference a few hours can make. This afternoon, I mentally chopped what I needed to say/cover into small pieces, and then tried to form a picture using as few pieces as possible.  And voila, once I had this picture formulated in my mind, I sat down to type it out.  Little did I realized that this would become a marathon typing session.  Typing for almost six hours, I typed  fifteen pages and approximately 3,750 words, which included that elusive final period.

It’s about 1:30 here on the east coast, so later this morning when I wake up I’ll be sending a total of four chapters to my editor; leaving the final chapter as a “surpise”/second ending to my novel. As it stands now I have about 260 pages / 66,900 words.

This means that Monday, I’ll be starting the next phase for my novel…getting someone to design the cover.

So right now, I’d like to thank everything who has followed me through my trials and tribulations as I completed this part of my journey in becoming an author.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Why is this happening? This is a question for which I can’t fathom the reason. Usually, I write something once and aside from tweaking it a little, it remains written. Of course it goes without saying that from time to time I’ve, like almost every author has done, deleted an entire scene. Yet for some reason I can’t seem to write these last few pages. I write it and it seems quite good, but then I go back and delete it, and this has not just happen once, it has occurred three times it the past five days since my last post.

The main idea I have on how to end the story has remained the same. When I woke this morning I realized it hasn’t been the wording which has driven me to write and then deleted these last pages, it has been the length.

The length? I’m well in the parameters for the genre I’m writing in, then it must be something else. Could it be the amount of detail I’ve written?

The amount of detail? I’ve had no real problem with this issue since I first began writing this novel several months ago. I’ve done through writing unforeseen and unwanted side trips away from the storyline and then deleting them with a whimper.

My current, self-imposed deadline for typing that elusive final period is Monday night. This way I should be able to get the last chapters of manuscript back from my editor. I’ll just have to rest this morning and until the afternoon, clearing my mind [hopefully] from all other matters and distractions, and keeping my pen and paper close at hand in case any of my muses comes up with an idea to help me.

THE FINAL PATH HAS BEEN DETERMINED

Last Thursday I had a setback, which I wrote about in my last post, when I realized that the last chapter and a half I had written had to be placed in the proverbial cylindrical file. But soon got rectified as I wrote eleven pages that day and the next; and the weekend had been filled with prior commitment which allowed only three additional pages.

This might sound like the past weekend has been a total waste of time with no movement towards my typing that elusive final period, however it allow me time to significantly map out the final pages. The last two to four is now intended to be an epilogue of sorts, but since it’s a YA novel it will be merely another numbered chapter which will bring a “loose end” I had created previously back to the forefront and to conclusion.

All in all, I see myself still needing to write thirteen more pages, which will give me a total of 260 pages and approximately 67,000 words. And once that final elusive period gets type, this last batch of pages will be off to my editor, and at the same time I will begin to work with the graphic designer I plan to use to do the cover for my book.

This will now bring my to do list down to: writing an eighty to a hundred word synopsis, author blurb, and last but not least I’ll have to determine a price for my book for both a printed/Kindle copy of the book, which I’m probably to a poll for on the LinkedIn groups I belong to.

A SETBACK AND MOVEMENT FORWARDS AGAIN

One thing about taking a break from what you’re writing is that when you go back to it, you see it would a “new” set of eyes. Unfortunately, when I got back to finally finish writing and typing that final elusive period for my first YA romance novel, I realized I had to chuck the last chapter and a half I’d written. With several pages now in the proverbial circular file, the dreaded nemesis of every writer, writer’s block, raised its sinister head.

As those of you who are writers know, there are dozens of ways to beat this foe back. One of the ways I’ve found to do it is having to focus on writing something different than my novel. That’s why I love following Laura McHale Holland’s flash fiction blog and thinking of a good response for each entry. Her blog entry this week has helped me once again by allowing me to overcome this episode of writer’s blog.

http://lauramchaleholland.com/flash-fiction/slip-away/#comments

OOPS - I'VE FORGOTTEN TO POST IN ALMOST FOUR WEEKS

With my other half on vacation my regular daily routine of being on the internet, managing my groups on LinkedIn, twitter, and of course my writing went by the wayside. When I finally returned to it, I had a backlog which took several days before I could get back on track. With the backlog out of the way I finally returned to my writing. However, I first had to re-read [and do some more tweaking along the way] my entire manuscript to refresh my memory of what I've written. But, as always, little things kept on interfering with my desire to finally type that ELUSIVE FINAL period for my novel.

Being ready to continue on my quest, new element has arisen; my editor went on vacation, and won’t return until the end of next week. So with approximately twelve more pages to go I figure the best thing to do is to outline my next novel(s) with the ideas my muses had given me, and spend two days next week concentrating my writing solely on my first novel.

This time lag is also allowing me to begin my quest for someone to do the cover for my book, so I'm searching the net, asking people I know for suggestions. I'd like to get someone who lives no more than thirty minutes away from where I live, so we can talk face to face instead of the impersonal use of the phone.

Next time, I’m definitely going to make a little room to do posts on my blog, even if it’s just saying some about my vacation.

MY MUSES HAVE STOPPED PLAYING GAMES

Having your creative muses come to help you out is great, especially when you need them the most. However, from time to time they get also become a nuisance.

This was the case with the recent visit of my muses. They came and gave me the inspiration I needed to move on with the final completion of my manuscript. As I sat down to resume creating the words on the screen in front of me, they began to tease me with quick bursts of new ideas. This happen several times, and several times I tried to resist their presence, but as I said in a previous post, “If they come, you must listen.”

The good news they left Friday night, leaving me with ideas for two more novels, both paranormals, one adult contemporary/paranornal and another YA paranormal. The idea for the adult PNR was so vivid, that yesterday I typed the first five pages/1,100 words.

With their presence gone, and the beginning of my next WIP already done, I finally got back to the present and typed the rest of chapter 35 [four and a half pages]. Hopefully, at this rate, and no further distractions, I should be typing that elusive final period by Wednesday

WHEN THE MUSES INSIDE YOUR HEAD SPEAK - YOU LISTEN

How many of us have lost ideas of what to write next simply because we didn’t listen to the voices [the muses] inside our heads?  I’ve learned my lesson well, because it has happen to me more than once as I wrote the manuscript I’m currently working on.

I was too busy in the writing of now for my manuscript to listen too these ideas formulating inside my head. I felt they would come back when I would be looking, however, much to my chagrin, I’ve proven to myself I had been wrong. I wound up racking my brain to come up with ideas again, but they were lost, never to be found again.

Soon after my post last week, I had the best of intentions to stay focused so I would have typed that final elusive period by now. However, when my muses began to give me ideas of what to write as my next writing endeavor, I listen. And now, a week later, I have not one but two ideas, which I’ve already typed out, waiting to start writing them.

Right now, the muses have left my head and I’m resting to clear my mind from their presence. My plan is to wake up tomorrow. bright and alert, and eager to begin writing the final pages of my manuscript, and with no more mental interruptions from these muses; my final period should make its presence known on Sunday.

So my advice to you, my followers is, When the muses inside your head speak — you better listen, if not, the ideas which you might have gotten will be like water under the bridge, long gone and never to return again.

LISTENING TO THAT VOICE INSIDE MY HEAD

Robert Burns wrote in his poem, “To a Mouse”

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren’t alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promised joy.

This is precisely where I am regarding the completion of the manuscript for my novel. It hasn’t matter what I’ve planned to do, something has continuously crept up to curtail my plans for the past several days since my last post. Here I sat thinking of how I should begin chapter thirty-five of my novel, after having reviewed the corrections/suggestions made by my editor for the previous chapter, and having a steady flow of continuous interruptions.

Today I heard a voice, as I’ve heard for the past several days, inside my head telling to go back to the previous chapter. Why should I go back to something I know I’ve totally reviewed? Could it be that I had missed something, something I had taken for granted as being correct? How many of you have had the same experience? Most of the time I’ve ignored this, and I’ve found myself being correct in the stand I took. But this afternoon, as I resisted in going back to the previous chapter, the voice inside my head urging me to take this course of action became exceptionally strong. I figured it would be better to give in now, than to resist any more.
I cleared my head of everything except the task I was about to undertake. I printed out a copy of the chapter in question, and began a slow, slow read. Reading this with a cleared mind and a “new” set of eyes, I found not one, not two, three or four changes which needed to be made; I found I had about twenty faux pas. Once I had completed this somewhat arduous task, and had saved the changes, I took a break to clear my head once again.

This evening after eating dinner and watch an episode of “Eureka” on NetFlix online, I printed out the chapter again [there’s something after holding the printed word in your hands as opposed to reading on a screen] and read it again. This time the inner voice in my head seemed to be at peace knowing that everything is the way it should be.

Once I sat down the words which had been trapped in my head began to flow into my fingertips, it took me about twenty minutes to think of what to type next and to have another double-spaced page completed. This might not sound like a lot to have typed, however if you consider I anticipate needing about fifteen to twenty more pages to reach the typing of the final period in my novel. I’ll only need about ten more hours to reach the end of this long, long tunnel I’ve been traveling through to reach this end. Which makes reaching my self-imposed deadline of this weekend a definite reality.

So if anyone has any doubts in listening to that voice inside your head telling you to follow a different path in your writing endeavor than you had in mind. Take it from me and listen to that voice, you’ll be happier in the end if you do.

I’M DEFINITELY HAPPIER NOW THAT I DECIDED TO FINALLY LISTEN TO THAT VOICE INSIDE MY HEAD.

GHOSTLY WHISPERS # 14 - July 25, 2012

“So Mary, what do you think about boys?” asked Samantha.

Given her experience with Jonathan and kissing him, Mary didn’t know what to say.                       

 Boys. Boys. What can I tell them about how I feel about them?  I definitely can’t tell them about my kissing Jonathan. They don’t know anything about me. I guess I’ll have to lie.

“Boys?  You want to know what I think about them.  I feel the same way you do. Doing things with your relatives, including your brother is okay, but not with any other boy.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait until we get much older to kiss any of them or to have any of them kissing us,” remarked Emma.

Wow! It seems I’ve already kissed a boy and none of them have. I’m glad I didn’t tell them about Jonathan. If I did, they’d ask me a ton of questions. And I definitely can never tell them about George kissing me.

JUST EXPERIENCED A SLIGHT DERAILMENT

As I stated in my last post I had just received two batches back from my editor [four chapters]. I spent a small part of that day [about 2 hours] reviewing what she had done. The next day [July 20th] I spent about four more hours reviewing the remaining pages I did not do the day before. I took a break, however once I went back to continue writing the remaining few pages for my novel, I realized something I had no anticipated earlier.

In the last chapter, as I’ve already told you, I had been able to write seven pages in one day. The seemed to flow at a breakneck speed onto the screen I had been sitting in forth of. Now wanting to start writing anew, I realized the chapter had not gone the way I had originally planned. Although the product I had been better, I feel as if my writing has been derailed.I’m now at a standstill, trying to get my bearings of where I should go from here. The end of my story is still in sight, no different then it had been before, I merely have to think of a way to clear away the [mental] blockage which my breakneck speed writing had created. Once this has been accomplished I can “slowly” bring my writing speed back to normal, writing my usual three to four pages again.

Thanks for following me as I approach the final destination, the terminal at the final period of my novel. And if possible, I’d appreciate a mention of my blog here. This might sound selfish and somewhat conceited, but I would love having a throng of people waiting for me when I arrive. :-) :-) :-)

AND NOW FOR A SHORT GAME OF TENNIS

Call it a short game of tennis or a game of ping pong, but in recent days I've sent five chapters to my editor in three emails, chapters 30/31 , chapters 32/33 and lastly chapter 34. I received the first two batches of chapters back from my editor over the weekend. Today I decided to put aside any thought of writing of any new material for my novel, and instead concentrate on review of the edits and changes I received from her.

Reviewing I believe, and you may or may not agree, is harder [more time consuming] than writing something anew. Not only are you reading the changes, you're also looking to see if anything has been changed in what you had originally wanted to communicate in those words. At the same time you're now making these changes permanent.

Well after about six hours of being a slave to this endeavor, I'm happy to say I've reach the end. Now for a brief rest until tomorrow, where I'm either going to be a slave to my own words again, or I'll be allowed to create additional new pages leading to that all important final period.

THE DAM HAS JUST BURST !!!

Yesterday morning I woke up early thinking about the ideas which were floating in my mind regarding Jonathan. I sat down at my computer, and before I knew it I had typed four pages in a little over an hour. The words just flowed from my mind, through my fingertips and onto the screen in front of me. It's a good thing this happen, as the rest of my day would be filled with other things I needed to do.

When I sat back down at my computer a little pass 11:20 PM, the words flowed again which ended with my typing three pages and finishing this chapter in a little over an hour. :-)

Hopefully today will be just as productive as yesterday, but even if I type just three pages, I'd be satisfied.

OUT OF STEAM

I had made a steady progress from July 6th, typing three doubled-spaced pages a day. The words were floating from my mind to the keyboard of my computer—appearing on the screen for me to see. But alas, after seven days, the steam I had going through these last few miles of the “tunnel” finally gave out, and I’ve crept to a dead stop on Friday the 13th of all days [BTW - I”M NOT SUPERSTITIOUS]. It feels like being on a huge roller coaster where you’ve just come down a looong descend and now must struggle up the next ascend before becoming able to coast downwards again.

Yesterday became a day of rest, clearing my mind of all distractions in the hope of getting a new clean slate on which I can write anew. And today Sunday, is a different day, a different day which I spent most of at the Nyack Street Fair, in Nyack, New York.

Although, the sky was threatening, it didn’t rain. All-in-all it was a great day where I bought some goodies and ate some great Thai food. The best thing of all was meeting a vendor named Jonathan…a name of a character in the beginning of my story who Mary kissed in the corner of the children’s department at Macy’s a day before she had moved away. His named echoed in my mind as I drove home, an echoing which stay me the idea of how I can continue my story while at the same time bring him back into, abeit it will be only for a cameo, it will provide some closure to what had occurred earlier.

With this idea giving birth to additional ideas I can definitely renew my writing tomorrow after sleeping on everything through the night.

THANKS for being here :-) :-) :-)

THINKING OF MY NEXT TO DO ITEM

With chapters 30-33 now in the hands of editor, and with me being on target writing three pages a day, I'm sitting here reflecting on what I should do next.

Of course I know I have at least one more read through making sure I've got all my "I"s dotted, and that all my "T"s have been crossed. At the same time I know I must check for continunity, making sure my timeline is in place and things have not occurred out of sequence somewhere along the way from typing my first capital letter to the typing of my last name. I also know I have to make sure that none my characters have suddenly changed places, or have sudden become alive again [unless they happen to be a ghost] having died previously in my story. All of these things are given and are relatively easy to handle, but...

Yes, but the question I have in my mind now is, "How do I handle the typing of the 80-100 word synopsis needed for my book? How do I cut something I've given birth to, cut something I've 'nutured' and have seen grow from a speck of an idea into what I have now, into so few words? How am I going to be able to get down to the pure essence of what I've written without my bias about it coming into play?

So, I'm thinking the best thing to do right now would be to sleep on it, and perhaps somehow the solution to this enigma will come to me in a dream--a dream which needs to become an reality.

GETTING CLOSER EACH DAY

YES, things are getting closer and closer each day. Yesterday I completed writing my second chapter [CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE], for a total of twenty-one pages since I began writing again on July 6th. I'm on schedule so far with my daily writing target, however, at the same time I've realized I'm going to need a few more pages than I had originally planned. Oh well such things happen every day to authors, and I am no exception.

Having completed this chapter I've emailed my editor to advise I'd be sending her these two chapters later on today. I also emailed her, to find out whether we've worked on Chapters 30/31 already, as I can't find any editing for these chapters.

Right now, I'll be taking a brief rest and then it's on to reading the emails in my various accounts and checking on my twitter account where I'm quickly getting to my 2,000th follower.

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

I had another day's delay on the fifth, something came up which I didn't expect. So I started my trek to the end of the proverbial tunnel a day late on Friday, July 6th. Since then I've completed another ten pages, and realized I might need five more pages than I had origianally. But then, such is the life of writing a story, it ends when it ends, and there's no shortcuts you can take to get there. This means, if everything stays on track, and I write only three pages a day, rather than the four I'd have liked to write, it means that my last period will be typed on Sunday.

THANKS for following me here as I get closer to the day I can see my words in print. I should be posting another snippet in a few days.

Caio

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

With my latest stint at Grand Jury done, and with the Fouth of July holiday over, peace has more or less settled into my life and I can begin writing the final pages of my first endeavor at a YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel. I've got a basic outline done, but as my words actually hit the page, unforeseen changes might still occur, changes which I will have to attend to. One thing I'd like to accomplish is having the last words of the novel be its title. This might be easier said than done because I want these last words to sound natural to the story itself rather than being forced.

So stay tuned to this blog, I'll be posting more snippets from my novel until it's finally released.

THANKS for being a follower, it's greatly appreciated.

Robin Leigh Morgan
[as you didn't know]

GHOSTLY WHISPERS # 13 - June 30, 2012

At bedtime, Mary’s mother tucked her for the night. She said, “Don’t worry if you have trouble falling asleep. You’re in a new room, and it’s normal to have problems sleeping the first few nights.”

Her comment made Mary feel a little more relaxed and the fact she had Suzy sleeping next to her, helped as well.

Mary was resting comfortably, when around three o’clock, she felt a faint kiss on her forehead. She awoke, startled at seeing a very faint shadow of light quickly float around the room until it disappeared into the closet. She might not have seen anything had it not been for Suzy barking as it drifted around the room.

Yikes! Is this a ghost?  But there’s no such thing as ghosts. Ghosts are imaginary all year round, but especially at Halloween.

But, Mary did see something, and Suzy barked at it, so there had to be someone or something in her room. Putting the incident aside, Mary went back to sleep with Suzy sleeping next to her.

The next morning when Mary looked around her room, she saw nothing had changed. Yet she still felt as if something had.

I'M BACK

After being on GRAND JURY, which I found a very interesting experience for the past four weeks, I'm back. The down side is that it took away a great deal of time from all my regular online activities and writing. I should be posting another snippet shortly. Needless to say during this time period I didn't make any significant headway in finishing my YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel; and at the present time I estimate I only need about 25 more pages to able to type that last period. I've been working with my editor as I wrote my manuscript, so once she's finished editing my final pages, I will take a slooow slooow final read tweaking it wherever needed. In the meantime, I still have to gather the funds I need to complete the self-publishing process. I've chosen to go with CreateSpace.com which is owned by Amazon. I've done my research and from what I've seen with other books they produce, they do good quality work.

UNEXPECTED SLOW DOWN

I've been called for GRAND JURY, four days a week for four weeks. Needless to say that this takes a great deal of time away from my writing as I get lots of emails each day.

During the down time between hearing each case, I've attempted to do some writing, but with everyone talking about different topics and my wanting to join in, there's no time to write. I tried doing some re-reading and editing, and with the noise which is created by everyone else, I can't seem to concentrate.

In the meantime, I did an outline of what I want to write about in each chapter. At this time I've already written 31 chapters, on 191 double-space pages, with about 49,600 words. and anticipate I'll need another 25 pages or about 6,200 additional words before I can type the LAST PERIOD.

GHOSTLY WHISPERS #12 - May 31, 2012

Determined to find out about the ghostly figure she saw the two previous nights, Mary grabbed her bedroom lamp and placed it on the dresser in the closet. She then took the inflatable mattress in the closet, blew it up, covered it with a sheet, and then got her blanket.

Keeping the closet door open, Mary turned off the light and fell asleep with Suzy at her feet, but this night didn’t wake at three o’clock came.

When her ghostly figure made its appearance this night, it floated around Mary’s bedroom three times as usual and not seeing her it drifted inside the closet and found her sleeping on the mattress there; it paused for a moment and sat down on a nearby chair.

After a few minutes of sitting there, it got up and floated over to Mary. Bowing down, it kissed her on the forehead, and like Sleeping Beauty, Mary woke from her sleep.

The moment she did, Mary saw the spirit disappear through the wall behind the dresser. 

This is weird. Did that ghost kiss me?  It definitely felt like a kiss, but how could I feel a kiss from someone who is not here?

A TITLE AT LAST

I had a short list of titles for my WIP YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel for a while:

1 - A Special Kiss
2 - The Special Kiss
3 - I Kissed a Ghost
4 - Kissed By a Ghost

After asking around, and with about 30 more pages to write, I've finally decided on using #3.

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL - Part 5

Here I am just after a brief rest from writing, finishing the grammar/spell check on my manuscript like I had planned. All went and I made all the necessary changes. However along the way I found two things which, for some reason I had overlooked. This means the basking in the sun I enjoyed the other day is now nothing but a dream. It means I need to go back to the beginning of that tunnel and correct those problems.

The first is a mix-up of two characters, which would have been a tedious endeavor to correct, but thanks to find/replace it became a downhill journey, coasting the entire way.

The second problem is going to be more intensive problem to correct. I need to replace what I've written with pronouns. Imagine having a characters stated three times in a paragraph. I need to decide a plan if action. Do I start now, or I forge ahead with my writing or do I return to the beginning once again to start the corrections. Given the time [it's almost midnight] I'm going to sleep on this issue and make my decision of the first things I'm going to do when I wake up.

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL - Part 4 [the end]

As I stand here, taking my prescription sunglasses out, I bask with the sun’s warm rays upon my face. The light is overwhelming, especially after more than three weeks in the cold, dark, and dank tunnel I’ve been held prisoner in.  Now after a short rest from writing, I’ll start the final leg of my trek in seeing the end of writing my first YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance novel.  I’ve struggled through thirty chapters with the aid of my editor already and have written over 48,500 words on 189 double-spaced pages.

Hopefully this final leg of my journey in becoming a YA Paranormal author will not be as arduous as the journey I’ve been made to endure so far. And as far as I can see from my observation point I’ll need about another 8,000 to 10,000 more words [32 – 40 more pages] to reach my destination, merely another stopping off point on my becoming a YA author.  But before I take my first step on this segment of my trek, I’m going to run the grammar check for Word. And if I stay true to form, writing about 4 pages a day; I’ll reach this destination on June 1^st, the beginning of a new month, the beginning of the next segment of my journey.

Be sure to follow my snippets--snippets which I’ll continue to post till my novel is FINALLY IN PRINT.      RLM  :-D

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL - Part 3

As of last night I can physically see the light at the end of the tunnel right. I’ve successfully completed the rewrite of one chapter where I moved the action from one location to another. The rough part of doing this is making sure to change all of the references to the new location of the action.

Now in Chapter 30, with two more pages to go in the chapter, I’m in the midst of changing the action taking place, where, again, I need to make sure all of the references get changed as well.

Once I’m sure everything has been changed, I only will have nine more pages to go for the end of the chapter, the end of my current manuscript. In other words, I’ve reached the end of the tunnel and now I’ll have the daylight and the warmth of the sun on face; and no longer will I have to deal with the dark dank environment of the tunnel that I’ve been imprisoned for in more the past three weeks.

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL - Part 2

I know that on March 31st I had written about my seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. However, right after that I had one distract after another. By the time I got back to working on my manuscript to write the next chapter three weeks had past. With this amount of time passing I had lost my momentum and decided the only way to get it back was to start reading what I've already written again.
About three weeks have gone by and I'm about 88.5% finished; with 4 1/2 chapters [Chapter 30 which is now Chapter 31] and 21 pages to go, I should see DAYLIGHT by the end of today and start writing a new tomorrow.
I estimate I will need about 10,000 words to go, which should equate to about 4/5 chapters and 40 pages.
This "forced" re-read and additional editing time did not become a waste of my efforts. With a "new set" of eyes reading it, I've made numerous changes and additions. [I've added about 1,200 words and had split one chapter into two.]
Posting my snippets here have proven to be quite worthwhile, one of the comments I received advised me to watch my lack of pronouns / articles when have characters and things being repeated are close to each other.
So as I start writing again, I will start another re-read looking specifically for this issue.
"Rome wasn't built in a day" and manuscript can't be completed with two/three read throughs, including one by an editor.

CHANGES ARE UNDER WAY

Here I go, moving right along with my current re-reading and editing of my manuscript, when I decide I need to move the action for a section of the story. Easier said than done. While the change had been easy to make, but now come the tedious task of making sure of the continuity for the story which has taken place. No one would want to have a simple error like this to be spotted a reader.
The location for the action in this section does make sense.

I've had a slow down in my progress, which I WILL NOT CERTAIN ends this week. I'm aiming to be finished with the re-read/edit as well as the entire manuscript to be finished before the end of this month. 

To follow my progess, I invite everyone to following me on Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/mypenname only

GHOSTLY WHISPERS #11 - May 4, 2012

Seeing a large carved pumpkin on the kitchen table, Mary asked, “Mom, where did the jack-o-lantern come from?”

“When I went to door to get my package from FedEx, I found it outside by the door.”

I don’t believe it. It’s impossible. This is the same pumpkin I just carved when George took me into the past. How did it get here?  Mom found it on the spot where George left it.

“Mom. Did you find any roasted pumpkin seeds near it as well?”

“I did. Why are you asking?”

“No reason. I’m just curious.”

GHOST WHISPER #10 - April 29. 2012

Miss. Adams told Jonathan to sit in Ashley’s seat and asked Mary to raise her hand so he would know where he’d sit for the remainder of the school year.

Mary did not like the idea of having him sitting next to her and wondered why Miss Adams couldn’t have him sit in the back row.

As Jonathan sat down he reached out to shake his hand with Mary.

“Hi I’m Jonathan Hudson, may I ask what your name is?

Mary didn’t know how to react. No boy had ever asked to shake her hand or had asked her a question in such a polite and formal manner, so she responded softly, “My name is Mary.”

Mary looked at him and thought he was kind of cute. She liked his hair; the clothes he wore and thought he had a pleasant voice. However the glasses he wore made him look a little like a nerd.

MUST STAY TRUE TO MY COMMITMENT

I can no longer allow myself to be distracted by other matters. Other matters which are not really that important but needs to get done.

Losing the momentum I had previously [I know I've said this before] has caused me to go back to the beginning of my manuscript once again to re-read what I've already written making new edits as I turn each page.

I've done about 75 pages already, and have about 115 more to go. I've made several changes, tightening everything as I go, and adding 575 words. As I look towards the end of my manuscript I believe I'll need about an additional 10,000 words / 40 pages / 5 chapters to finish it.

It's amazing how many little tweaks needs to be made to get a manuscript just right.
Stay tuned to this blog for additional snippets from my manuscript, and as always, feedback would be appreciated.

GHOST WHISPERS #9 - April 17, 2012

The moment her mother left, closing the bedroom door behind her, Mary turned toward George, “Why didn’t my mother see you standing next to me?”

“Ghosts can only be seen by one member of the family.”

After giving her this explanation, George disappeared--not through the wall behind the dresser as he usually did--but this time he disappeared right in front of her eyes, laughter echoing as he vanished.

GHOST WHISPERS #8 - April 7, 2012

Pulling on his arm to get him to move faster, Mary pushed him inside the playhouse and pulled two chairs together so they were facing each other. “Sit down.” Mary motioned for him to sit across from her.

Jonathan had a perplexed expression on his face, and Mary realized she had never acted so impulsively before. Once he sat down, Mary reached over, grabbed his hands, and looked sadly into his eyes as she started to talk.

“Thank you for liking me for being who I am. You’re the first boy who hasn’t made fun of me for being so plain looking.”

"Why would you say something like that?You’re not ugly.”

Mary’s eyes filled with tears so she dropped her gaze from him, not wanting him to see her cry.

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

With my reviewing the edits I've just received from my editor for Chapter 29, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Although my original plan of finishing my manuscript by the end of March is now going to be a definite memory, I can see that the middle of April will be when my dream to write my first YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance manuscript will now come to fruition.

Once it is completed, a brief wait and then it's a final slow review of the complete manuscript making sure I have a continuity of all of the components for the story and that I haven't confused any of my character's names.

I plan to start/finish Chapter 30 of my manuscript by tomorrow which by coinciedence is April Fool's Day [but this is not going to be a joke.]

GHOSTLY WHISPERS #7 - March 26, 2012

A little later that night, Mary dropped a large pen on the floor, and Suzy ran away with it. Suzy dropped it on the floor under the dresser. When Mary tried reaching for it, she couldn’t. Then for some reason, she tried moving the dresser on the right side.

When she did, the dresser seemed to slide to the left along with the floor under it, revealing a small door in the middle of the wall. Mary peeked inside and, because it was dark, she decided to get the still-lit oil lantern from her desk.

Unsure of what lay past the doorway, Mary hesitated before stepping inside. When she did, the doorway she had just entered disappeared, and there in front of her stood her ghostly figure, no longer ghostly or opaque, but a solid living person. She glanced down at herself, no longer seeing her jeans, tee shirt and sneakers. Instead, she wore a dress, black shoes and short white socks--the same clothes she found the other day, only now, they looked new.

GHOSTLY WHISPERS #6 - March 19, 2012

“How did Mary know about our idea? It’s too big of a coincidence for her to have dreamt about having a sleepover the same night we had planned it?” said Megan.

“I know what you mean. She couldn’t have known what we had quietly discussed while she was gone helping her mother,” replied Samantha. “And that could only mean one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Her ghost told her. And this is the reason why we’ve decided to have the sleepover in the first place.”

“This means we’re going to have to keep our eyes open even more on Friday night, as anything could happen now,” said Alexis. “Agreed?”

A DIFFERENT KIND OF WRITER's BLOCK - Late Posting

I'm still suffering from writer's block. But I believe it's a different kind of writer's block which authors usually face.
At this point in time, I still need about 7,800 more words which equates to about five more chapters. While I don't know exactly what to write next, my mind has jumped ahead to the LAST CHAPTER and has it about 95% completed, and it seems to be writing the final chapters backwards.
I don't know whether I should write what I already have in mind, and then worry about bridging the "backward" written chapters together; or to keep what I have in mind until I can put those words unto paper.

GHOSTLY WHISPERS #5 - March 14, 2012

All of a sudden, things started to float all over the room, but Mary was standing in the middle of the room, far away from where she had controlled everything before.
More and more things began to happen.
“Hey, someone just blew in my ear,” Grace said, jumping a foot away from her spot.
“Who poked me?” Samantha asked, color draining from her face.
“Who pulled my hair?” Alexis asked then stared at Mary with her mouth open in a huge O.
With so many things happening, everyone started to leave.

GHOSTLY WHISPERS # 4 - March 9, 2012

Alexis asked, "How do you like all the homework we got yesterday?"
Another ordinary question, which Mary answered, "This teacher likes to give us a lot, huh?'
With these questions out of the way, her friends began to ask about things geared to make fun of her and her house.
"Come on Mary, we know you didn't do the math homework yourself. You had help," said Emily
"We know your ghost did it for you, when you weren't in your room." Megan flashed Emily a knowing look.
I can't tell them it's the truth. I can't tell them because if I do, they'll tease me about believing in ghosts. I don't like it, but I'm going to have to lie.

CHANGING GENRES

Some of us who have chosen to write fiction come from a variety of a variety of places. And by a variety of places I'm not referring to a physical location [city, state or country"; I'm referring our wrting experiences.
There are some of us who have enjoyed writing since we were a child, and each year we had written something in school it improved. For some of us, it has continued until we've graduated college and are working. Some of us entered the work force taking jobs which required us to write, whether it was procedures, handbooks/manuals, or news stories. But all of these are non-fiction, and each one has a set of "rules" which need to be followed to write something well enough to be acceptable.
As for myself, while my regular job did not require me to write, for eleven years I wrote articles [commentaries/viewpoints] of what was happening in my community. When I started to write these items my writing skills were not honed; and by the end I stopped I became quite adept at it.
Starting to write fiction, I somehow drift to writing a romance story and I still have it, a contemporary paranormal which after almost 9 years is still not completed. Someone at the local chapter of the RWA suggested I should write for a much younger audience, which is what I'm writing right now--right now for which I've written over 42,000 words and still need at least 7,800 words to finish.
The story I'm writing is a YA Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance, where I've writtien more in several months than I had with my previous endeavor.
Anyway, making the transition from non-fiction to fiction I've had to learn a new set of rules in how to write. Most of these involved dialogue--telling not showing; where before I just told. I had to learn about tags. I had to learn not to be overly descriptive of something, but allow my reader to create the image for themselves in their minds. It was hard to do at the beginning, because old habits are hard to break, and now I'm finding it easier each day. The biggest issue I've had to face and which I'm still trying to get a good handle on is POV [Point of View], regardless of what's happening or being said it has to be in one's character's perspective, and you can't flip-flop between two characters within a scene--there needs to be a transition from one character to another.
The critiques I've listen to for another members of the RWA chapter I belong to us help me mold myself to the author I'm becoming.
I've also learned there are addtional rules within a genre depending on the sub-genre you've decided to write in. These rules apply to the dialogue spoken which needs to be true to the time period you're writing in, as well as how your characters are dressed, and their titles if any [as is the case with the regencies sub-genre in romance].
So as you can see writing is not mere a string of words you put together, there are rules which need to be followed.
I hope everyone read this has come away with some knowledge they didn't have before. If you want to, you can leave a message and I'll try to respond, as soon as I can.