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.”