Sunday, April 28, 2013

I'm Back!

Hello All!
     Well, I have returned from my New England vacation. I had a fabulous time and I got to do a lot of eating, shopping and site seeing. The only thing that I missed out on was sleep. I think that I spent the last 36 hours or so in a total fog from lack of sleep. So I have not done any writing since I got back. There are some times when you just have to accept that you can't write because if you try you will make so many mistakes that it would almost be counterproductive. So I am hoping to continue catching up on sleep and hopefully I will get enough brain function back by tomorrow night to pick it back up. If I can't, then I will resume on Tuesday.
      On a larger scale I have decided that my new goal is to have the first draft of Sacrifices done by May 7th. That will give me about a month to do edits so that I can have the novel sent into the publisher by June 13th. Fingers crossed.
      By the way, I am still waiting to hear back about Building. Waiting really is the hardest part.

Have a great week everyone!

~Sophie

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Pre-Vacation Update

Well, I am now less than six hours before my long weekend begins. I am very excited to get out of town for a little bit for a girls' weekend. I have been crazy busy this week because I have had to work in addition to getting ready to go on vacation, but I was also successful in progressing Sacrifices. Believe me when I say that it is not the first time I have been very happy that this story is kind of writing itself. This week I was able to meet my goal of getting 3/4 of the book done. I just finished chapter 15 out of 20 and I am well past the 45,000 word total. So it is going really well. I am hoping to have the first draft done soon.

But for now, I am taking some time off from work and writing. I will update as soon as I get back to real life. Have a nice weekend everyone!

~Sophie

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A Quiet Weekend

As predicted, it has been a relatively quiet few days off for me. I managed to write just over 10,000 words and I have now completed 13 chapters. So, all in all, Sacrifices is coming along very nicely. I am going on a long weekend next week and I am hoping to hit the 3/4 mark by that point. I figure that there will be about 20 chapters, so I really only have to finish one more chapter to get there. If I manage to keep to my time line, I am hoping to have the first draft done no later than May 9th and the novel submitting to the publisher by the end of June. Keep your fingers crossed.

Have a great Friday everyone!

~Sophie

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A Very Long Week

My goodness, this was a painfully long week. I think in that last three days I got a whopping eight hours of sleep. As expected, I did not get much writing done. I wrote one chapter over two days, totaling almost three thousand words. So, yeah...not very exciting. I am hope to get more done over the next few days, since I am am off, but I have a feeling I will not be as productive as last week since I will be catching up on sleep.

I would like to end by sending thoughts and prayers to Boston. Yesterday's events were a terrible tragedy in a string of violence that had plagued this nation in past months. End the violence! And may the people affected by this, as well as all of the victims of senseless violence, one day know peace.

~Sophie

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Another Great Weekend...And a New Account

I have to say that I am quite proud of myself right now. To say that I had a successful weekend would be an understatement. Since Sunday I have written more than 15,000 words, including more than 12,000 words in the last 48 hours. I think that that is the most that I ever written in such a small time frame. This story is just pouring out of me and it is fantastic! I am now into Chapter 9, which is a real game-changer in the book. I am hoping to finish it tonight, but I am not sure if that will happen since I have to go to bed soon so that I am somewhat awake for work in the morning.

In other news, I opened a GoodReads account. So if anyone out there is curious to know what I am reading, feel free to check me out there under the name Sophie Bonaste.

I have an incredibly busy few days coming up so I am not sure when I will have time to post again. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later. Have a good weekend everyone!

~Sophie


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Breaking the 10,000 Word Barrier

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. This has been a good weekend for me, even though I had to work. I got the chance to see some family, which was nice. And the most important thing in my writing was that I have official broken the 10,000 word barrier for Sacrifices. I am well into chapter 4 at this point and it is looking like the story will be between 60,000 and 75,000 words. I think that this has the potential to be a really good book and I am enjoying the chance to write about these characters and their journey.

I have two more days of work, so I am hoping that by this time next week I can have over 20,000 words. I am taking long weekend at the end of this month, so if I could have the bulk of the novel done by then I would be really happy. I think that it is possible as long as writer's block doesn't set it. I have the whole story outlined so I don't think that will happen, but you never know.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful start to the working week (or a good continuing working week if you are like me.) I will keep you updated on my progress on Sacrifices in the next few days. Until then...

~Sophie

Thursday, April 4, 2013

A Successful "Weekend"

Well, here it is the end of my weekend. Now I now some of you are thinking: 'What is she talking about? It is Thursday.' And that is true. But as I am sure you will learn from my constant ramblings is that I do not have   a normal work schedule. I have a weekend off, it just happens to be Wednesday and Thursday, as opposed to Saturday and Sunday. Weird, I know, but you get used to it.

Anyway, I was able to achieve my weekend goal of writing 5,000 words on Sacrifices. I also managed to finish my outline of the entire book, which was also something that I needed to do. In reality, I should have done more, but I made the mistake of putting Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the DVD player as background noise. Let's just say that that was five hours that I could have been writing that I will never get back. Oh, well. You are supposed to be lazy on the weekend, right?

So it is back to the grind for me in the morning, so I should go and get some sleep. I will probably bring you another update on Sacrifices over the actual weekend or early next week. Until then, have a great weekend everyone!

~Sophie

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Done!

Well, I have done it. Tonight at 10:08 PM EST, I sent my first completed work, Building a Family in Love, to a publisher. Even though it is only a short story, this is the first step to me achieving one of my life's goal. I always said that I wanted to be a published author and now I have started. My story may not get accepted this time, and I am not really expecting it to, but at least I have begun. Sooner or later, I will get published, although I do hope it is sooner. As long as it takes me less tries to get published then it took Einstein to create the light bulb, then I will consider it a success.

While I wait for a response, I will continue to work on my novel. I have off from work for the next two days so I am hoping to get a good deal of writing done. Realistically, I think that I can get around 5000 words done on Sacrifices. I always hope for more, but somehow between getting caught up on sleep and doing chores around the house, I never have as much time for writing as I want.

Ah well, for now I will soak in the success of the day and worry about everything else tomorrow. Have a great week!

Sophie