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So, yesterday I finished the rewrite on Meredith MacKenzie and the Uruk Empire. And by finished I mean got it back from the person who very generously proofread it for free, went through the whole novel and excepted the changes (except for 2 I think), made any further revisions my proofreader thought necessary for clarity's sake and then fell asleep on the couch at 4:00 AM after saving the file.

The website, especially the blog, hasn't been getting much love lately. A lot of that has to do with what I've been doing the last few months. Between learning more than I really want to know about Quantum Mechanics, Solid State Physics, Leech Brain Cells, and Electricity and Magnetism; Doing an extensive rewrite on Meredith MacKenzie and the Uruk Empire, and my new time sucking addiction to World of Warcraft, I haven't had a lot of free time. I still don't, really, but I'm going to try to make more of an effect to keep up with this blog.

So, on to stuff that's actually interesting.

I just wish I would.

This isn't the worst con crud I've ever had, but it sucks. A lot. Still, life does go on.

I'm not doing so hot with that "Post every day" thing. I figure I'll cut myself some slack because it's the first week of school, and therefore everything is INSANE.

Next week isn't likely to be much better, because it's the run up to DragonCon.

Still, I got two chapters done this week on the Third Draft of Meredith MacKenzie and the Uruk Empire. I think this draft is better than the previous two. It's certainly more action oriented.

We'll see what the nice agent thinks when I send it back to her in a few weeks.

I'll try to post something less blathering tomorrow.

Yesterday was a very weird day for me. I sat down and wrote the first scene of Chapter 11. It didn't work. I rewrote it. Repeatedly. It never worked.

Then I had an idea. The original version of the scene involved an assassin walking into the room and taking a shot at one of the characters. Meredith, being Meredith, reacts without thinking, leading to a dead assassin. The characters fort up, then the assassin's backups arrive and things get hairy until the cavalry shows up.

I've rewritten Chapter 9. I'm still not all that happy with it, but I think I need to just move on to Chapter 10 at this point. The problem is, most of the chapter is Meredith and co sitting around a conference table. I can't work out any way to do what needs to be done in this chapter without using this basic structure. The next chapter isn't a whole lot better, but it does end with a bit of action, and the chapter after that is almost all action, so maybe it will work out in context. At least, I hope so.

Yesterday was kind of a bust. I went down to school to get my books for the new semester. Introduction to Electrodynamics and Modern Physics. Exciting titles. Really.

Well, after I shelled out $400 bucks on two books, a new bag, and some notebooks, I tried to get a transit card. Of course, they stopped selling transit cards for August on Monday, because it makes so much sense to quit selling cards the same day financial aid is posted. Sometimes, I really hate my school with a passion.

Right now, I'm working on the third draft of my second novel, Meredith MacKenzie and the Uruk Empire. I've finished 8 chapters, which works out to around 26K words, about 20K of which is new material. Pretty much the entire front half of the novel is being rewritten, while the back half will remain pretty much intact, though some of the subplots will get a bit more emphasis than before.

I'm actually enjoying reworking the story, but I'm running up against a problem a lot of part time writers have.

Lack of freaking time.

So, it's been a while since I posted anything here. That's bad. On the other hand, I have been extremely busy.

First, I heard back from an agent a while back. She said she really liked Meredith, but that unfortunately, she didn't think it would sell in it's current form, and gave me a few suggestions on how to fix the problems. Then offered to reread it if I revised it.

First, I just got a very nice review for "The Girl With The Killer Eyes" over at Tangent Online.

Second, I just got a request for a full on Meredith MacKenzie and the Uruk Empire from the agent who requested a partial a while back.

One agent. Two requests for more material. I think this is a good sign.