Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Canada Day Long Weekend

I had an extra long weekend with Canada Day falling on a Tuesday. Four glorious days off. Granted the weather didn’t cooperate until yesterday, but that was fine. Yesterday definitely made up for it with heat and sunshine and no fog in the harbour so we could sit on Citadel Hill, watch the sunset and then be electrified by the fireworks extravaganza. It was a great end to a fabulous weekend.

But now that the little mini-vacation is over, I need to buckle down and get back to work. I am hoping to finish writing the new scenes and typing in the majority of the revisions for Brimstone into my manuscript by Sunday. I’d like to start the final read through by next week. Then off it goes to the editor no later than July 16th (ish). Somewhere in there I have to pull together a dreaded synopsis but I’m hoping the one I already have roughed out will cut down on the time it takes to write the new one.

Another thing I did this weekend was browse Chapters. Granted, I do this almost every weekend but this time they had restocked their Writing/Publishing section with some great books (finally!) and I picked up Revisions & Self-Editing by James Scott Bell. Its part of the Write Great Fiction series. This book is great. I’m only ⅓ of the way through it but I really wish I’d had it before I started my revisions. If I wasn’t in such a time crunch to get Brimstone out to the editor I’d be tempted to go through it one more time with the tips learned in this book.

On the plus side, while the book is focused on Revisions and Self-Editing, the tips in it will help me make a much stronger first draft of Saving Grace, Book 2 in the Brimstone series, not to mention make cleaning up Outlaw Bride that much easier. And hopefully quicker. Oh dear God, please make it quicker…

So for my fellow compatriots – what did your Canada Day weekend involve? And for those of you below the border – any big plans for the July 4th holiday?

8 comments:

Tess said...

Garden work, a campfire and yesterday, a motorcycle ride into Gibsons to catch some of the celebration there (I'll be posting pics from that soon).

Glad to hear you got that extra long weekend and the weather cooperated for the fireworks :)

Julia Phillips Smith said...

That book sounds awfully intriguing... I love how your normal trips to Chapters usually don't have writing book finds - 'but this time...'(!)

We had a yummy family dinner at our place on Sunday, and on Canada Day I attended the swearing-in ceremony of a friend of mine from work. Very emotional. This morning at work we had a Canada Flag cake for her and flowers and a card - you'd think we were excited, or something.

Anonymous said...

We're doing NOTHING here for our independence day weekend. Doesn't that sound wonderful?? Well, it does to me. We so need some down time.

Melissa Amateis said...

Glad you had a great four-day weekend! We don't have any big plans here, but we'll get our daughter some fireworks to shoot off.

And I need to check out this Writing Great Fiction series...

Unknown said...

Hey Kelly, thanks for the James Scott Bell suggestion. I bought that one and one about plotting.

What's a 4th of July without a barbeque, a parade and some fireworks. My daughter's school is walking in the Richfield parade and they've invited the students and parents to join. I've never been part of a parade before so I'm excited.

I hope all you Canadians had a great Canada Day.

Dixie Belle said...

I spent some of the 4th writing and hope to get a lot more done tomorrow. Wishing you a happy holiday, too!

Amy Ruttan said...

I had to work the stinking Monday. BLAH.

But I don't have much longer at my EDJ. So YAY!

Lexi said...

Happy belated Canada Day! I hope it was a wonderful one!