Friday Fricassee

If you haven't heard the buzz yet--we're official!  ON THE BLOCK 2016 is happening, and it's not too soon to start getting your ducklings in a row.

The dates:

Submissions:  Thursday, September 8
The Auction:  Tuesday, November 15

If you missed the announcement with all its glorious details, READ IT HERE NOW.

I'm already geared up and working the behind-the-scenes cogs.  We've got 6 confirmed yeses from agents so far, and I expect a number more.  There's also a New Thing this year (that you'll just have to wait to hear more about) that's already garnered a great response.

I'm definitely getting my administrative geek on over here.  :)

ALSO:

There will be a Secret Agent Contest in August.  Those of you who feel like you're caught between the two--as in, if the Secret Agent Contest includes my genre, do I need to skip out on On The Block?  Let me allay your fears right now:

If you enter, and are accepted into, the August Secret Agent contest--YOU MAY STILL ENTER ON THE BLOCK.  UNLESS, of course, you actually WIN the Secret Agent Contest.  (By "win" I mean that you are chosen as an all-over "winner" or you "place" somehow [first, second, third place--all agents do this differently].  If you are given an "honorable mention" or something similar, YOU MAY STILL ENTER ON THE BLOCK.)

All that to say--no worries.  Don't hold back from the August Secret Agent Contest!

Okay.  I think I've got everything covered.  For now.

As for me?

Well, thanks for asking!

Even as you read this, I'm on my way to Chicago with the sweet-of-my-heart for a weekend we've been planning for months.  This posed a slight problem for me earlier this week when I realized that I'd be losing two days of writing.

Two whole days!

Roll your eyes if you must, but the truth is that I've just started drafting my new WIP, and I'm on a strict 1000-words-a-day, 6-days-a-week schedule.  It sort of gave me mental hives when I realized that I'd be messing up my schedule before I even hit 10,000 words.

Never fear, though.  I reset my handy-dandy Scrivener Project Target, marking Friday and Saturday as non-writing days and Sunday (my normal day off) as a writing day.  That bumped my daily word count to over 1200 a day, but at least I can now face my weekend away without stressing about lost words.

8000 words in, and super excited to move forward!

To add frosting to the cupcake, I received some fabulous notes this morning from Danielle, who had graciously offered to read my outline and share her insight.  HOW AWESOME IS SHE??  And at the end of the notes, she wrote

I love this and I am so excited about this and I wish it was already written so I could read it.

How could I possibly ask for a more encouraging, on-my-team agent?  If I could write 5000 words a day, I would.  (Heck, who wouldn't?)  But I'll just plod along at my 1000-words-a-day pace, and the draft should be done by October 1.

And there you have it!  I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but overall I expect to stay engaged and positive, because HOW COULD I NOT?

All right, then.  I'll see you next week.  For now, I'm going to focus on Mr. A and our special getaway.

Hugs!