Life in progress

Tag Archives: writing a novel


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Weekended Update

Not to be confused with SNL’s more famous “Weekend Update” sketch.

In book publishing news …

I’m almost finished the edit of Book One of my new vampire series, now entitled “Of Crimson Descent.” Because it’s a reverse harem/why choose romance (one heroine, multiple heroes), I’m planning to release it under the pen name L.G. Hill, just to keep it separate from my other titles. I’m still trying to figure out what I need to do for the new pen name. New social media accounts, maybe? A new website? It’s not as though I’m keeping it a secret or anything, so I’m not sure. That will be something to think about this week.

Anyhoo, I plan to start my proofread a week from tomorrow, to give me time to work on getting Book Two ready for my editor next weekend. And my cover artist is doing an AMAZING job with the mock-ups of the covers. More to come soon.

In weather news …

Snow. And more snow.

Maybe more than we’ve had since I moved here. I was used to it when I lived in the Ottawa area, so it’s kinda nice to see, at least from the other side of the window.

In other story news …

You can now read my short, steamy romantic comedy “Fired Up” in the Just Add Love anthology for free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription. Or you can buy it for $3.99. All proceeds go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I haven’t read the other fifteen stories in the collection yet, but the reviews look great. Check it out!

And that’s it for this Weekended Update. I may keep this as a regular Sunday thing for everyone one to link to. Keep an eye out!


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JusJoJan25 the 28th – Confusion

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt word, “confusion,” comes to us from Dan. Check out his blog here!

Now that I’m in my sixties, I expect to get confused occasionally. Or at least my younger self expected it.

And yeah, sometimes I do.

But when I sit down to analyze why, I realize that if I’m focused on something, I don’t get confused at all. It’s when I’m thinking too many things at once.

And yeah, maybe I used to be able to juggle a thousand things in my head and not forget why I walked into the kitchen, but in my defense, I think I’m juggling three thousand at the moment.

Take my writing for instance.

In the space of ten and a half months (November 1, 2023-September 18, 2024), I wrote three novels in a series—approximately 271,000 words total. Now I’m editing two of them at the same time.

Which makes sense because although they’re about different but related main characters, the second half of Book One takes place at the same time as the first half of Book Two.

It’s all about the details. If it’s snowing on January 12th in the first book, I have to make sure it’s snowing at the same consistency on January 12th in the second book.

If information comes to light on the common enemy in both books, I have to ensure everyone is on the same page, both literally and figuratively, twice.

You can see where that might be confusing at times.

Thank goodness I have a program like Plottr to help me keep track of the timelines.

Would I have been able to keep track of all that without a program back in my twenties? Maybe. But I didn’t have all the responsibilities I have now on top of juggling two books simultaneously.

A thousand things vs. three thousand.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

This enterprising post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Dan for the prompt!


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Meet Guest Author Linda G. Hill…

I made it to Chris, the Story Reading Ape’s Author Hall of Fame! Click on the original post button to read my article, and comment there. 😀

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Hi there. I’m Linda, and I’m an author. It’s been a long, straight road since I wrote my first novel during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in 2004. That particular piece of *ahem* literature still hasn’t seen the light of day, mostly because of how much I’ve learned about writing since.

To back up a bit, my writing career began when I was four years old. I remember having one of my parents staple a stack of paper together so I could write a book. They encouraged me to just draw pictures, but I wasn’t having any of that. I wanted to tell a story. Unfortunately for them I could only spell the words “I” and “the” at the time, so I bothered them unceasingly. Since then, I’ve been writing in my head if not on paper or the keyboard. I can’t not do it. It’s a part of me.

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Tuesday Use It In A Sentence – Gage

I’d like to use a counter widget as a gage (not to be confused with a gauge) to keep myself honest in my attempt to write a new novel. Does anyone out there know of a good one? When I participate in NaNoWriMo, I rely heavily on the counter they provide.

Would you like to join in to “Tuesday Use It In A Sentence”? Of course you would! Visit A Word Adventure this week to find out how!