Gads!  Time sure can fly when I’m not looking.  I see it’s been over a weeks since I last posted here.  I’ve found myself short on time this past week.  I had to make a presentation at the day job to people from all over the world.  Yes, you read that right.  With our modern technological wonders, I was able to give a real-time presentation to people ranging from the east coast of America westward to Malaysia.  And all from the cozy comfort of my home office.  So that ate up a lot of my time, but I’ve also been making good progress on my novel revisions.

I passed the 17,000-word mark today with some tough editing.  I basically threw out an entire chapter and re-wrote it to up the tension in the scene.  I had to cut a part I really liked in the process.  That made it hard—I was waffling about it for much of the morning—but then I got my head straight and made the cut that needed to be made.  It’s a stronger chapter now because it leaves my character in a more desperate situation than the original version.  As many of you know, I’m a big fan of “tightening the screws” on my characters.  Tension might not be fun in real life, but it makes for good stories.

I’ll try to check in before another week passes, but I can’t make any promises.  Also on my plate: a trip next week to Madison, Wisconsin where I need to make another presentation, this time in person at a large international conference—and I still haven’t put my talk together yet.  Eeeek.  I better get back to work now.