Good evening, everybody!
I'm happy to report that there've been a number of great strides made in my recent draft and edit work--including some that, it turned out, I'd made a while before, thus considerably lessening the workload now! In addition, several new supporters and fellow writers have decided to pitch in and help push Discarded closer to the finish line; my deepest thanks to them, and I can't wait for yours to hit the shelves as well! To both chill out after this success, and to gird myself for the next potentially grueling round, I present as this week's song Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G Minor (Op. 23), as performed by Janusz Olejniczak for the soundtrack to the stellar movie The Pianist (Usual copyrights apply; I own nothing!)
Although I'd been a lover of classical music for years before coming across the movie, it didn't take very long for its music to become a personal favorite, and land a special place on my Soundtracks playlist. This song in particular is haunting, energizing and soothing all at once, making it a symbol of the entire soundtrack, and the torturous journey of the film's hero, Wladyslaw Szpilman. Whenever I've needed to stop and take a breath while writing, or need an excellent, steady rhythm to keep the words flowing, this piece is among my top choices, and hasn't failed me yet.
The workflow hasn't flagged, either, and shows no signs of doing so. As mentioned above, some of the anticipated work on my latest draft (Trials, the second book in the Cross & Flag series) actually wasn't necessary, since I'd done in the last round...and apparently forgotten, which is either amusing or deeply disturbing :) . The third book in the series, Revelations, on the other hand, has a number of gaps that'll undoubtedly take a while to even get reacquainted with, much less filled; therefore, I'll be focusing on edits to the rest of the draft first. The last alpha read on Bloody Relations has also come back, which means I can FINALLY get back to knocking down the blocks that vexed me in the last round. Combined with other new work still to be done on the first C&F book, and the planned work on the fourth, Reckonings, it's obviously going to be a busy next several weeks, if not the rest of the summer. No matter how busy, though, I'll still find plenty of time to relax and get away from the keyboard--once I've made sure to update you all, of course! In the meantime, keep on commenting and reviewing, here and at any of my other sites, and spread the word wherever you can!