My good buddy Stephanie Rowe blogged yesterday about this crazy race her husband runs in every year. I read about it and about passed out just reading about the self-inflicted abuse. But then, the guys in our lives do crazy things. Take my hubby for instance. This is the guy who if given the task of listing his favorite hobbies would list “sleep” as one. This fan of sleep is getting up before 6 a.m. tomorrow — not because he has to be at work early, not because he wants to watch the dawn of a new day. No, he’s getting up then so he can be at the computer when the free agents are made available at 6 a.m. in Fantasy Football! Goofy guy.

Speaking of things that will be happening tomorrow morning and on a more serious note, if you’re in the path of Hurricane Katrina, I wish you well. Stay safe. She looks like a wicked, nasty storm.

Today’s writing progress: I finished this round of revisions and sent the Intrigue manuscript off to my good buddy Mary for a read-through. I also finished a freelance editing project and shipped that off.

Since it’d been 2-3 years since I’d had my eyes checked and I felt like they were straining a bit, I went to the optometrist today. While waiting, they had me browse through the various frames to pick out what I liked. I found a nice pair of partially rimless Anne Klein frames, but I ended up not buying them. The reason — yes, I’m having some eye strain; no, my prescription had not changed enough to warrant new glasses. Guess I should just stare at the computer less.

On the way home, I took one of the back routes to avoid the construction that is taking place on approximately every road in the city! And what do I see has moved into one of the older business buildings along the alternate route? The Casket Store. Okay, is it just me, or is going shopping for a casket really creepy? To me, it’s always something you did at the funeral home. Now, you can just zip in on your way home from work and browse.

Today’s writing progress: I finished reading/editing the final eight chapters of my Intrigue manuscript and started typing in the changes from my hard copy edits. I hope to finish that up tomorrow and send it off for the fresh-eye read.

I had about 5 hours in the car today, so I was thinking about writing, as usual, as I drove through what we in the South call gully-washers. I’ve heard it suggested many times that writers should pick one type of book and stick to writing that. Others say that writers should diversify so they’re not putting all their eggs in one basket. What if all you write is historicals set in Scotland, you have a backlog of them just waiting for some wise publisher to buy them all, and suddenly Scotland is no longer the hot thing and publishers won’t touch your books with a ten-foot pole? You’ve got nothing you can send out there into the big bad publishing world.

For the most part, I write romantic suspense, but I’ve also written some young adult, plain ole romance, even a chick lit. I feel comfortable writing any of those, so if one sells I know I can come up with other stories of that type.

What about you? What’s your take on this quandary — stick to one type of story or diversify?

Today’s writing progress: I just got through Page 140 of my revisions, which is about the halfway point. Did three chapters tonight and hope to do tons more tomorrow.

You ever have one of those times when everything that has to be done now or yesterday hits at once? I’m in the midst of one of those. I’m trying to finish revisions on my Intrigue manuscript, but I’ve not had the chance to look at them today. I worked on freelance projects and a volunteer project that has a deadline. Granted the freelance stuff brings in a little money, so I can’t complain. And I was just able to read through a stylebook for one of the companies I’m freelancing for while walking on the treadmill, so there’s some multitasking going on. Still, I keep walking by my dining room table and seeing all my manuscript revisions spread across it, waiting for me to return. I’ve still got to finish a freelance editing project that has a tight deadline before I can return to that fictional world. Hopefully I’ll get there by tomorrow night. And hopefully by Sunday night, I’ll have this round of revisions done, typed into the computer and sent out for a read-through by a friend who is VERY generous with her time. Okay, end of two-minute break to post this message. Back to the salt mines…

Finally got started on my revisions to my Intrigue book today. Got through the first four chapters (71 pages). Would have done more but I’m judging contest entries for my local RWA chapter’s contest. Must have those done by tomorrow.

Here’s a question for everyone. I’ve got a trip to Chicago coming up soon. For those of you who have been there, what are some of the coolest things you did and saw?

Okay, I’ve been busy all day, but there sit my revisions still untouched. Ack! I had critique group today, and on both sides of that seemed to be a lot of “stuff” to do. But tomorrow, I vow to get through 50 pages of revisions! I want to be done with this first set of revisions so I can send it out for a read by Sunday.

Since book winner Bron Jameson already had some of the books among the giveaway stack, I had the hubby draw out another name to receive the final 5 books. And the winner is…Tawny Weber!

Well, I worked on a freelance copyediting project today and did other exciting things like getting the oil changed in my little nearly-220,000-miles-on-it car. One of these days, I’m going to have to blog about my little car. She’s been a good one, and I’m shooting for 300,000 miles! I think she’s my reward for having such crappy cars when I was younger. A Plymouth Fury II anyone? Try getting that boat parallel parked during your driver’s test. A gold 1970 Nova? Ugh. Can you say one of the two ugliest cars on campus? The other was what we called the green Batmobile that some guy drove.

So, what’s the crappiest car you’ve ever had?

Bronwyn Jameson! You’ve won the pile ‘o’ purple books. I’ll be in touch for mailing info. Congrats, and thanks for stopping by the blog and making comments.

Watch for another giveaway soon.

Remember, if you want to be in the drawing for the free books I mentioned on Monday, there are only about 3 hours and 15 minutes left to leave a comment on one of this week’s posts.

Well, as I was plugging along writing on the Intrigue manuscript today, I realized that I was wrapping things up sooner than I thought I would. I’d already written about the last 50-70 pages earlier because they were more fully formed in my mind at the time. So, I’d been writing the material that leads up to those final chapters. Imagine my surprise when I reach the meeting point of those two parts today. The manuscript is still around 20 pages too short, but I think the page count will increase as I go back through it. I think it needs some more suspensy scenes, so that will up the pages as well as the Intrigue feel of the book. So, it looks like I’m headed into revision mode tomorrow. For now, I’m headed to the treadmill.

Today’s writing progress: 14 pages and the end of the first draft of Fanning the Flames. The little progress tracker in my sidebar isn’t going to say 100% at this point, but it hopefully will by the end of this next week.