Kate Rivet

Hello everyone!

As of last night, I’m at about 45,000 words, which means I’m about 15,000 from the planned end of this book!  I’m now in the place of “where is this going?” in the sense of: where exactly should I set up the big event that will fuel the ending of this story?

At the point I’m at right this moment, I’ve already begun to set things up to be like dominoes.  The problem I’m having is that I’m not sure how many words it will take to cause the other shoe to drop and then to pick up all of the pieces.  I know some authors are good at writing pieces of their work and sewing them together seamlessly, but I’m an author who needs to move in order from Point A to Point B to get my idea down.  I can’t do that Point A->Point D->Point B->Point C and then suddenly, they’re all in the right place as if that’s the way they were initially written.

My original goal was that I’d have this novel finished by the end of February.  I will admit that there were many days where not being under the NaNo-type pressure really killed my vibe and I couldn’t get anything worth writing down this month, but I was really determined to persevere, especially after I passed 10,000.  Every single unfinished piece I have is under 10,000 words and that’s kind of my make it or break it point.  When I finally hit 20, 30, 40k — it just pushed me that much more.  So, I have 5 more days of February and just under 15,000 words to go.  That’s about 3,000 words per day to finish on time, BUT!  I’ve given myself a get out of jail free card!  I took a 5-week course on my new digital SLR camera, and therefore my Monday nights have been unproductive.  The last one was tonight, so my Mondays are now back to normal.  As a result, though, I’m giving myself the first 5 days of March to finish if I need that lifeline.

I’m truly hoping to have something to whet your reading appetites with in the very near future, but I will give you this much: the book is definitely, officially called A Royal Risk at this time 🙂  It could change in the future if need be, however, I think it will work wonderfully with the cards I’m dealing in this one.

I hope you’re all having a great end of winter, though I sure hope you are all warmer than I am!

Until next time,
Kate

Hello readers!

Since I last wrote, I’m well into the 30,000’s — I’m actually at 33,360 words as of a couple of days ago!  That’s pretty good progress for someone who’s only devoting a few days a week to writing right now.  Three weeks ago, I started a 5-week course on photography since I inherited a fancy camera that I’m way out of my depth trying to use.  Believe it or not, I’ve already learned a lot so far and I’ve taken some decent pictures so far, but something has had to give to have time for that plus my full-time job.  Unfortunately, it’s been writing that’s taken a back seat while I’m spending Mondays with my camera, Tuesdays practicing for the most part, and Fridays working late and coming home to try to get something done.

On the bright side, I’m at 23 books read so far in 2015!  One of the books I’ve read most recently has been the most interesting — it’s called The Almost Nearly Perfect People, and it’s by Michael Booth.  It’s a look at all of the Scandinavian countries, plus two bonuses: Finland and Iceland (in case you didn’t know, those two aren’t really Scandinavian — they fall under the Nordic umbrella).  As the book I’m working on now is set in a fictional Scandinavian country called Ängsmark, I thought it would be a good read — especially since I’ve discovered I’m 17% Scandinavian through Ancestry.com and I’ve been considering a job opportunity that would possibly take me to Sweden.  I’ve actually been working on my Swedish lately (Jag talar lite svenska!  Svenska är ett rolig språk!), so this book appealed to me that much more.  It’s nonfiction, and those always slow down my reading speed as I take in the new information, but it was well worth the multiple days I spent reading it between working on writing, work, and my class!

Back to writing, though — as I’m now past 33,000 words, I think I am safely past the halfway point.  Unlike most of my books, where I’ve got the basic story outlined in my own special way, this one has been mostly flying by the seat of my pants.  I have to say, though it’s not always easy going on this particular project, I really am enjoying it!  Having some extra creative freedom is both extremely difficult, yet extremely rewarding!

I hope the winter’s cold is treating the rest of you well — I know I have plans to stay in this weekend, where our high temperature in Pittsburgh will be 10 F on Sunday and the low -1 F!  If this weather does not create the opportunity to stay in and curl up with my computer, I don’t know what will 🙂

Until next time,
Kate