Did you notice my progress bar? It says finished. That’s right, I said finished! This is me doing a happy dance (obviously some of my friends decided to join me.) I wrote 2,201 words since Sunday’s check-in. Frankly, I wrote 2,201 on Monday. That’s it. Only on Monday. I think when I checked in with Sven I said it was Tuesday, but it was actually on Monday. I didn’t write last night.

I have written 8,923 since I started sweatin’ with Sven…

That is one novella down and one to go. And hopefully more, if I can do it. But, for now, it’s on to WIP – Sven Novella #2

I’m home. I loved my trip. I loved everyone I met.

Here are some photos (click on them to see them more clearly):
Shelli & Gwen

Jenna, Me & Gwen

Stella Cameron & Jayne Ann Krentz – they sat with us at lunch on Saturday. Very nice ladies.

Shelli & Cherry Adair. Shelli won a trip to Nationals this year courtesy of Cherry Adair’s Finish the Damn Book contest. At this years conference Cherry awarded three prizes of fully paid ECWC for next year and one prize of another fully expense paid trip to Nationals. What lucky and thrilled ladies those were. I signed up to do her contest this year.

Cherry sat with us at lunch and was hysterical. She is funny and generous, and I will now be hunting down her back list.

The hotel was great, the food was good, the company excellent. My only down side was that I hated doing a group pitch. It’s bad enough pitching to one person, but having eight other faces looking at you while you do it is awful. Needless to say, I don’t think I have an agent. Although to be fair, I’m thinking she wasn’t the right person for me anyway. Just a vibe thing. Nothing more. She was very nice and professional. She didn’t even decline me or anything, she did tell me to send it in when it was longer (I pitched a category length book) or when my ST is done.

I won a raffle draw, and of all the things there I could have won, I won the Naughty & Spice bag from Shelli. She has a photo on the camera she was using so I will post it if/when she sends it to me.

All in all, a fantastic weekend. It went by in a blur and it’s hard to believe it’s over.

Gwen – my revolving door Diva. You are the best! If you want to room in SFO, I’m there (if Shelli doesn’t beat me to it! LOL) Have fun with your door prizes.
Jenna - amazing how all these years online and it was the same in person as in email. Can’t wait to see you again, although I know it may be awhile since that little one is on the way.
Shelli - a bit wild and crazy one on one, and a shy girl in public. Who knew? I think this girl’s got a heart of gold. Shelli always made sure we had a seat, even when she couldn’t be with us (she’s a VIP you know… Vice President of her chapter so she must hobnob with the bigwigs ).

Last photo…

Sorry, I hope you all aren’t getting sick of Sven. I’d love to post some real blog content, but I’m too busy writing!

OK, yes, I’m not writing all of the time. I do have three kids under 8, editing work (for my editing job, not my own stuff), driving to and from school three times a day to pick up aforementioned children, dh’s business admin, volunteer work, and hmm, basically life. Whose idea was this anyway? LOL Nah, I love it when I’m busy. That’s when I do the best, although I do need downtime or I lose it just a little. I like alone time, which is hard to get in a house of five people, three of whom are small and dependent. One of whom is larger, but still slightly dependent (but shhh don’t tell him that ).

Anyway, this is the first time I’ve written since Sunday night. Yeah, life stepped in (in the form of the youngest being awake from 1am to 6am every night and the lack of sleep making my brain freeze when trying to think of where my hero had been going in that last scene). However, I wrote 1,110 words tonight and I’m very happy about that. I was worried about how to wrap this story up and it came to me. The problem now will be containing the make-up scene/conclusion to less than 3400 words, since I’m not allowed to go over 20k. I’m obviously going to go over the 18k I gave myself. That was just a guideline.

So in total, since started I’ve done 6,371 words. Which may not sound like much, but for me, it’s great! Thanks, everyone, for stopping by and for all the support. I really appreciate it.

I’m at a total of 5,261 words since I started this 70 Days of Sweat.

If I keep at this pace (averaging about 750 words/day, BUT not really since I missed Tues and Thurs this past week, so slightly higher) I will finish this ms this week (which is good because I’m at a writing conference next weekend and, while I will be learning about writing, I don’t actually expect to write a whole lot. But, you never know). While I will then go back and re-edit that, any new word count for Sven will be applied towards my next novella. I cannot belive it and I’m so excited. I hope also to work on something else I’ve had hovering in the background, but we will see.

Just keep typing, just keep typing

I’m checking in with 25 minutes to spare (Pacific time LOL). I did not write yesterday, because Tuesday is date night in our house and I started on the weekend to make up for that (that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it).

Tonight I wrote 1087 words so I’m a very happy girl.

In total, since the official start date of 70 Days of Sweat I’m at 2272 words. A little behind where I should be, but ok considering I’m now about 5k up since last Friday.

Take that Sven