Portland!

I finished the story I mentioned in my last post. By the deadline!

The reason for that deadline: I was flying to Portland, Oregon to meet up with my on-line writing group. We were each to bring a story to share. It was our first time being all in the same place.

The visit was amazingly fun. Lots of talking. Many photos were taken. Here's just a sampling.

Cannon Beach on a glorious cloud-free day. I bought All the Earrings.

The following day: Multomah Falls

A tree near Horsetail Falls. This one could be a prompt for a story! 

In our search for lunch we crossed Bridge of the Gods to Washington state. So I've been in Washington. For maybe a half hour. The photo was taken in Oregon, looking across the Columbia River to Washington.

The next day was an inside day.  First stop was Voodoo Doughnuts. The filling on this one was raspberry. The sugar rush lasted several hours. 

We had to go to Powell's Books. This is the entrance. Enticing, isn't it? And the store delivers on that promise. So. Many. Books!

Flying into Portland, I saw Mount St Helens and friends out one side, followed by Mt Hood on the other side. I was in an aisle seat so didn't get pictures. Flying out of Portland I had a window. Here's Mt Hood.

It was a marvelous trip. We discussed so many things, including our plans (or lack thereof in my case) for NaNo in November. Maybe we can make our getting together an annual thing.

April Summary

Hi.

Only hours remain before April Camp NaNo is over. The structure is different than November NaNo.  You get assigned cabins. Like going away to camp!

You can request cabin mates, so the members of my on-line writing group as well as a British NaNo friend were all in the same cabin. There were also seven people we hadn't met before camp. We had s'mores, scimitars, and chocolate wine. Also Baileys and Guinness and cocoa. Some reached their goals and others didn't, but we had some fun conversations.

I signed up to edit for 25 hours on Rising Tide. I put in more than 27. The final battle scene is longer now and I punched up Rori's role at the end (as requested by beta reader Theresa L). Just a few more tweaks and it will be time to start on synopsis and query.

Scary.

I read five of the seven volumes in Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series. (I read the first two books in March.) Ms Elliott writes epic fantasy. Each of these books was about 600 pages long (mass market paperbacks). I enjoyed the series, but I like her Spiritwalker series better.

And that pretty much accounts for my free time for the entire month of April.

Oops, I did it again

My on-line writing group just decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo in April. Spontaneously. During our meeting. We all signed up and requested each other as cabin mates. During the meeting. There were many giggles.

I'll be editing Rising Tide.

Maybe writing a new short piece as well.

It's camp.

No Pressure.

I think I'll be playing ukulele around the campfire now and then.

Dithering

At this evening's on-line writing group* meeting, we decided we like the term "dithering" better than "editing." It has a more friendly sound, and it's definitely less daunting.

It's also a good description of the process. "Should I phrase it like this or like that?" See - dithering!


*present were Laurie (http://teapotmusings.blogspot.com), Cathy (http://idahocat.blogspot.com), Terri (if she has a blog it's secret) and me.