If We Were Having Coffee on the 21st of September

31 Replies

Coffee Share new Hampshire in the Summer

Hello and Welcome! Come on in and I’ll get you a large mug of some very strong Dark Roast, a cuppa tea or other beverage. It is a beautiful day here and we might want to go out back and sit on the patio. Where are we, you are asking? Some may recognize the photo at the top as being from New Hampshire.

It was a weird week. I started off on Cape Cod. It was very nice and I had a great time. Back in NH the week started off with good mid-September weather, which was great since it felt like late-September for the last few weeks. But then it got pretty cool for a few days. Brr. Now it has warmed back up to early-September temps – it will be up to 85 F/30 C for three days in a row and then stay in the 70s for over a week after that. Odd, but nice that it will be well into October before I have to turn on the heat.

Work was busy, but I think I am getting stuff done.

I did some of the usual this week, like massage, running, weight exercise, walks, dog-play, reading, etc. A lot of my time has been taken up with the rewrite of The Old Mill. I am about 80% of the way through, but I will have to make another pass through before I call it the 2nd draft. My guess the 2nd draft done the second week of October.  Remember, I typical do four to six drafts before I start the “copy-editing”, i.e., calling it done and looking for grammar mistakes and typos.

And that is about it. As I said, it is a beautiful day, so I will spend as much time outside as possible.  That means I won’t be watching my blog much ;)

Thanks for stopping by! If you have a Coffee Share of your own I will try to make a visit later.

The Weekend Coffee share is hosted by Eclectic Ali .  This week’s share is here. and the link up is here.

31 thoughts on “If We Were Having Coffee on the 21st of September”

  1. bearmkwa

    wow! What a week you’re having! I’m working on the third draft of a story I’ve been writing on/off for the past few months. It’s still not much more than a clumping of intense scenes that need to be “bridged” into the plot. I’ve got the climax all done, now it’s just what leads up to that. Weird, but that’s how I roll. Glad your weather is better, too. Today, it’s in the 90’s here, and we’re on day 20 or 21 without rain. I sat and watched the pine in the courtyard shedding needles in a blizzard like manner this morning. Our lawns are browning, and leaves are falling… still green. Weather man promised us rain today or tomorrow… I hope he’s right this time.We’re still waiting to sign lease, but with everything packed I feel half the battle is won! :) Have a great week! `Shalom, Bear

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      It has rained here, but still pretty dry. When the dogs run and play out back they kick up a ton of dust.

      I have a few ways that I write. The first is I just start writing and go where it takes me and, surprisingly, it usually ends up with a very clear plot. Other times I will write the entire story or book in my head, refine it, etc. and then write it out. This was a bit of both – I started writing, and then I remembered an old story I had in my head, so I used that as the plot of the inner story.

      But yes, a pretty productive week.

      I hope you have a good week coming, that you can move to your new place and that you have rain!

      Like

      Reply ↓
        1. trentpmcd Post author

          We are at almost 90 here today, but it will top out in the 70s the rest of the week. I often turn the heater on the first week of October, so unless something changes drastically, I am not complaining… Glad you got some rain.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I’m sure that you understand 100%, but I HAVE to get outside when the weather is nice. Or when it is raining. Or snowing. Or there is a hurricane or… OK, I have to get out every day…. Seriously, it was a beautiful weekend and I did get out a bit, both playing and working (mowing), but not as much as I would have liked. I hope you had a great weekend!

      Like

      Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      It’s been an odd year and the leaves changing are a little behind this year, but hopefully we’ll have a nice year. Last year was a little duller than usual. Yeah, I love New England in the fall :) Even the cold nights are fine with me (though tonight’s low will be almost 70!)

      Like

      Reply ↓
  4. howikilledbetty

    Gosh, you sound like you’re all over the editing and know what to do and what to expect. I’m fumbling around in the dark! Do you have a routine of how you work and at what point will you send out query letters?? Hope you don’t mind me asking? Katie

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I have a mixture of routine and fumbling ;) Even though I correct mistakes and fix any issue I see on every draft, typically I have a goal for each draft, a goal that is dependent on the work in progress. So right now I am taking a story in first person from one person’s POV and making it 3rd person from several POVs (only 1 per chapter). I am also fleshing it out more but at the same time trimming some of the data-dumps. An example of fleshing it out might be taking a scene that the main character heard about in the rough draft (it is in his POV) and showing it happen from the the POV of the person it is happening to. It might also include drawing the settings with more detail, deepening the characters, etc. I don’t know what the next draft will be, but most likely it will be character work. I plan on doing a post soon about my editing methods and such.

      As to query letters, I’m not 100% sure if I will send any or continue to self-publish with this one. If I do send any out, it will be at a point were I still have some type editing to do, but most of the drafting is completed. I’ll send it out to a few beta readers at about the same time.

      Anyway, hope that helps, but stay tuned for a deeper post about it, most likely on Friday.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  5. Prior...

    Hope you enjoy the outdoors as much as possible!
    Just came in and the sunshine is warm and a cool breeze came and went
    And so cold tea for me – on this here late September early afternoon.

    Glad you are 80% through this current stage of the old mill
    —
    ☀️😊📚

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
      1. Prior...

        okay good – start with shorts tomorrow “:)
        things here nice- we had the windows open with fresh air streaming in (it did get a bit warm later but we did not crank on any AC
        –
        and although a lazy day – did get some stuff done –
        thanks for the tea, T

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I think everyone does what works for them, though there is a lot we all have in common. I’ve picked up a ton of hints reading how other people have done it. Of course each work is different and so I’ve done things a little differently each time. I might do a post just about my editing technique sometime soon…

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply ↓
  9. dprastka

    I enjoyed coffee with you this morning! How far is it to NH from Cape Cod? I am just curious as I know all the states are smaller back East and I’m too lazy to look at a map. Lol 😀 I know you go back and forth so the commute can’t be too bad. Amazing summer is over and Sept going by fast too… How did this year go by so fast? Glad your making progress on The Old Mill. Must feel good!! Have a great weekend! 😃

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      It’s about 150 miles/3 hours. I don’t do it every week and typically will go down Wednesday night and come back Sunday morning, so have 3 full days. Occasionally I will do a long stay, and have 3 or 4 full week vacations in a year.

      September has flown by so quick….

      Since I have been rewriting big chunks of the book, it does have a very big sense of accomplishment :)

      I hope your weekend is going well :)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
      1. dprastka

        My daughter is living in Orcutt, CA (works at Vandenberg AFB, where she serves) which is about 3.5 hours away so gives me a good sense of the distance. When I visit her it’s just like your stays. Wed or Thurs to Sunday. I bet it will be so nice when you can retire and then move and stay in one location. I’m glad you have that feeling of accomplishment!

        I’m having a GREAT weekend!! Very relaxing actually!! 😃🐴

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply ↓
        1. trentpmcd Post author

          I am looking forward to being in one house again! I like both locations – mountains in NH and beach on Cape Cod.

          Glad your weekend is going well. If you did a coffee post I’ll try to catch it later – I sat down to read the blogs and it is after 9 and I am still going through comments! I guess that is what I get for playing outside all day and reading any during the day ;)

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply ↓

Express Yourself

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s