Thursday, August 31, 2017

The Eclipse Is Over and Done, So What’s This About?

I know it's late; everyone has forgotten the eclipse in the news from the disaster in Texas. Speaking of that, give what you can to help, but be sure you give to organizations that will actually help the people in Houston and other communities affected by Harvey.

Back to our regularly scheduled program.
We've all seen excellent photos of the eclipse that occurred on the 21st past, but I thought perhaps there might be some slight interest in a different way of looking at the (for us, partial) solar eclipse.

We live south of Boston, so the eclipse was just over 60% coverage of the solar disk. We have a roof-top solar installation, and I thought the graph of the power output at five minute intervals might be interesting.


Power vs time of day, Aug 21, 2017


Note that we had, in addition to the eclipse, a few clouds; those account for the overall unevenness as well as apparent spike in output as the eclipse’s leading edge approached at about quarter past two (just before 14:20).

As always, comments welcome.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

July's Gone; Here's the Update


Updated 8 Aug, data from 1 August.

Since Blogger won’t properly handle an internal link, I’ve reordered the updates to put the latest on top. Older ones are below the text.


As of (8/1), the WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 490 words. Took care of the few questions and said, that’s done.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 106 324 words; draft is complete. Reread and revised, and sent to beta reader on August 5.
    •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Three): 3 700 words; draft is about 5%. Plan for the first draft to be done by September 15.
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 49 336 words, the understanding of where the story is isn’t complete.
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 104 578 words; Received comments from beta reader; fixing has started.
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 900 words; last questions answered and it’s done.
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 042 words; done.

For reference, here’s last month’s status.
As of (7/1), the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 111 343 words. To my reader on June 6; comments back and revisions complete. A few more q for the reader, and this one will be finished.
    •    The True Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 94 750 words; draft is not complete. Two more scenes; I can see the end. The title has changed because I liked where the characters ran off to. Update July 6: Draft complete.
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 49 370 words, began understanding where the story is; draft complete by July 30,
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 100 178 words; almost no work. First read to beta by July 6.
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 848 words; sent to beta June 6. Comments received and incorporated; Q’s back to reader by July .6
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 018 words; sent to beta June 6. Comments received and incorporated.

Here’s July’s work:




I wrote 17 170 original words in June, averaging 554 per day, with twenty-four days of writing nothing. That’s about 2450 words each day I did write, which would have been fine if I’d kept it going. The short title is at the right. The twenty-four days of no writing were spent in editing or reading, and worrying about the problems my reader found in Low Places.


What happened?

On July 15, I got feedback on Low Places. It was largely negative after a quarter of the book, and deservedly so, once I read the comments. It’s a simple problem to recognize (once you look for it) and while conceptually the correction is easy, the implementation is far-reaching. For those keeping score, I failed to allow Beckie, the protagonist, to grow through the preceding five novels; she’s still making mistakes that would be fine, or at least understandable, in the first or second books (where she did make some of them), but aren't so plausible after seven years in her universe.

As of the time of this update, I’ve reworked up to about the spot where my reader stopped; when I get there, I’ll send it and see if I’ve improved it sufficiently.

I finished the draft of True Princess July 6; I set it aside and cleaned up The Faux Princess and Amerith, finishing them about the same time the comments on Low Places arrived.
The comments on Low Places bothered me because I didn’t know why I made the mistakes. My confusion about that stopped me cold for the best part of a week, and I still don’t really understand what I was thinking. The worrisome part of that is how will I recognize it in future? Thank heavens for good beta readers!


I set The True Princess, the second book in the Dragons Run My Life series, aside to steep. Then, while contemplating the problems in Low Places, I reread True, editing and going through the list of words I use too much. After doing that twice, I sent it to my reader. Hopefully she won’t find problems as big as in Low Places.


Bottom line: My plan is to have the first quarter of Low Places ready for review by the middle of next week. If that part meets expectations, I hope to have the whole story fixed by the first week in September, and back to my reader the week after that. Depending on when I get True Princess back and the number and depth of comments, I hope to have it well along by the end of the month. Depending on how I might split my time, I want to have the first draft of Voyages Home done by the middle of September, too.

As always, comments and opinions welcome.

The spreadsheet: Created by Svenja. See svenjaliv.com for more info and resources, including a free online word meter. All images are © 2011-2016 SvenjaLiv (http://svenjaliv.com).

Earlier updates:

As of 6/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess (Dragons Run My Life, Book One): 115 518 words. Did the revisions, but need to reread, then to my reader by June 5
    •    The Voyages Home (Dragons Run My Life, Book Two): 62 162 words; draft is not complete. Now plan by June 30.
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by July 30,
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 99 247 words; corrected most significant problems; revising. First read to beta by June 15,
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 848 words; proof and send to beta by June 5, and
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 018 words; proof and send to beta by June 5.


As of 5/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess: 110 651 words. Found even more holes with the aid of my reader; plug them with the revision to beta by May 15
    •    The Voyages Home: 37 735 words; draft may be complete by May 15, but more likely, the 30th;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by June 30,
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 99 053 words; found significant problems; revising. First read to beta by May 30,
    •   Amerith (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 19 854 words; proof and send to beta by May 15, and
    •   Rhion Prequel (A Dragons Run My Life Addenda): 6 013 words; proof and send to beta by May 15.

As of 4/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are
    •    The Faux Princess: 108 807 words. Went over notes from my reader. Revisions complete by April 20; return to beta by April 30.
    •    The Voyages Home: 13834 words; draft complete by May 15;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 96 958 words; proof and send to beta by April 15.

As of 3/1, the four WIPs, along with my plans for them, are:
  •    The Faux Princess: 90 954 words was sent to beta reader Jan 30; notes came back by 2/12 and have lain waiting for Low Places to be complete. Goal is to have it ready to publish by 3/31.
    •    The Voyages Home: 8382 words; draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 81 365 words; failed to complete draft by Feb 15. The goal is now to have the draft by 3/15, and on to my long suffering beta ready by 3/31.


As of 2/1, the four WIPs along with my plans for them, are:
    •    The Faux Princess: 90 956 words, sent to beta reader Jan 30;
    •    The Voyages Home: 2500 words, no change; draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, no change; draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 65 932 words, still on track to complete draft by Feb 15.

As of 1/23, the four WIPs along with my plans for them:
    •    The Faux Princess: 91 300 words, to beta reader by Jan 31;
    •    The Voyages Home: 2500 words, draft complete by April 30;
    •    Princess (A Beckie and Ian story): 51 000 words, draft complete by April 30, and
    •    Low Places (A Beckie and Ian story): 50 000 words, draft complete by Feb 15.