Writing Progress, Sweet Heat chapters 28-37.... Of tunnels and lights.

So I was in my favorite upscale grocery store a couple of months ago, and I came across a bottle of Oriental Sweet Heat dipping sauce. And since the title of my manuscript is Sweet Heat , or something related, let's just say I get a case of the giggles everytime I see a product with the words "Sweet Heat" in the title. I've even come to work before and have been pleasently suprised by a bag of Sweet Heat potato chips propped up against my computer...

I've partaken of both products, and they are indeed sweet, and they pack the heat...

That sauce and them chips sho' is hot!! They make this Oldgirl break out with that Darth Vader HAAAAAAAAWWW! HAAAAAAAAWW!

Anyway, it's been several months since I've given a writing update. Last time I checked, I wrote an update on May 5th of this year. I don't know why I haven't been posting about it. Not really sure what that's all about.

All I know, I've managed to bang out 10 chapters in that time, totaling 196 pages and 73,203 words. (GLORY!)

I write 3-4 hours per day on average, while only spending approximately an hour a day on my manuscript. (For some bizarre reason, I am working on 4 short stories right now. I don't know what's up with THAT...) But I am happy to say that I am just about finished with the manuscript... thank goodness!

I can see the end of the tunnel!!

My volunteer critiquers seem to be pleased with my writing. More importantly, I am pleased with my voice and my style of writing. I see a little development here. My writing is much more fluid now, and it makes more sense. (I CRINGE when I go back and read my first 2 chapters, LOL). I have a better handle on description. I am beginning to understand how to weave in important details a bit better, details that will become important much later on. This blog has helped A LOT in developing that skill. However, I am still loooooonnng-winded as all get out. I still can't put a simile or metaphor together to save my life, but after a workshop or two (which is my goal for 2007), and more intensive reading, I should be well on my way!

So... it seems as if my 9-year-old brown tabby Oscar Tyrone scratched and sniffed around on ebay last week. He messed around and won a full manuscript critique by acclaimed author Nichelle Tramble...

Look at him, looking all excited! He looks like a freakin' deer in the headlights.



Why, I declare! Little man must be doing some writing during the day when he's home alone... Got the nerve to be fooling around using my credit card to pay for his winnings.

*LadyLee violently snatching the manuscript critique winning ticket from Oscar-Tyrone's paws*

So I won a manuscript critique. Not sure how I feel about that. There's a bit of nervousness mixed with a shrug. Don't get me wrong, I am excited, but it is a weird feeling... kind of ike when I turned in the first draft of my Ph.D. dissertation: I was proud of that ish! But when my bourbon drinking, cuban cigar smoking, gruff, wild-haired Polish advisor with the one bad eye got a hold of it, and marked it all of my gorgeous chemical stuctures, delightful prose, and technical data up with a fresh out the pack BRIGHT red sharpie, I felt like dirt on the ground. I think I even went home and got drunk as hell that night..I mean, I thought I'd done the darn thing!

But I had to go back and spend about 40 hours doing corrections... And you know what? 20 hours into my corrections, I thought, "Damn, old drunk ass dude made some real good suggestions!"

After I successively defended my dissertation, and was given the custormary handshake and the "Congratulations Dr. LadyLee!" river dance and spiel, I spent an additional 20 hours on final corrections suggested by my other panel advisors...

That's the way I am looking at this critique: it is something that will help me get it right. I must take the suggestions with a grain of salt and work it out! I've spent 20 months on this manuscript, and it is dear to me. Any bit of help helps.

Now, Ms. Tramble has an insane amount of editing experience. Plus I saw her in People magazine once grinning from ear-to-ear, sportin' a black t-shirt with the words "Put your big girl panties on and handle it" in big bright pink letters.

*LadyLee swallowing hard*

Um... the sista may be a bit off the chain. I just hope that I'm not ripped a new one in the process, LOL!!

But overall I am grateful. Whatever will be will be. If she bust out with some "Ladylee that was great" craziness... All I gotta say is somebody better give me my money back, pronto. I paid for a thrashing and that's what I expect, doggonit! LOL! Brang it ON! That's the only way I will grow!

Like I said, I am just about finished. The last three chapters I've done have been written in a timeframe of 2-3 days each for some reason. I find myself thinking about it more than writing. Once I have thought about the direction of that chapter, well, I sit down and write it. I think I have three chapters and an epilogue left before I am done. And I have had the most intriguing, thought provoking convos with a few of my readers. Those conversations have helped me immensely.

Nichelle said on her site that she was expecting the manuscript in 2 weeks, which made me shriek to say the least. The writer holding the auction said it was open ended, so I thought I had a good decade or two to go back and do a little correction here and there. This means I have to sit down and spend all my writing time on it for the next two weeks. Maybe I can send a nice email and she will give me a slight extension. I don't know. We will see.

It's kind of like I see the traffic light at the end of the tunnel, and the light is green. It all of a sudden turns yellow. You know what that means:

Step on the gas and beat the doggone light before it turns RED!

So you know your Oldgirl... that is exactly what I plan to do.

I will let you know how it goes.

Amen, goodnight, Holla! :)