If I Should Die

My Month Shock and Relief on Repeat

Lynette M Burrows

My month of shock and relief on repeat is almost a continuation of our 2020 trials and tribulations. But not quite. While shocks came, relief came soon after. Of course, the insurgency at the Capitol was an enormous shock. It remains the top shocking and horrifying event for the month. But there were personal shocks as well. And enough relief that I made some progress on my monthly intentions. Making Wish I could say I made substantial progress this month. I wrote a lot of words. I cut even more words, hopefully improving the manuscript. The second draft has reached the midpoint. Finally. *Smile* I improved both the number of words written and the time spent on writing over January 2020, but my husband was in rehab a year ago. I published twelve blog posts this month. Even gained a few new subscribers. Hello and Welcome! **Waves** Editorial calendars are great tools, I’m told. But I have struggled to use one for my blog. This month I had a lightbulb moment that may be my way of using an editorial calendar. I won’t say more about this until my first quarter progress report. It’s not truly a success unless I […]

A Quiet Busy Month

Lynette M Burrows

December is typically a hectic month. I’m often a last-minute shopper. There are celebrations—three birthdays, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. And it’s a three-in-one business-wise: end of the month, end of the quarter, and end of the year. Yup, tons of statistics, gathering statistics, and reviewing the year. This pandemic year it was a quiet busy month. Making Revising If I Should Die continues. Slowly. But you know what? I’m really pleased with changes I’ve made. Rearranged the order of some scenes and it works well. A first reader said she really enjoyed the story so far. She also made some brilliant suggestions for improvements. Eleven blog posts appeared here. (More to come) I wrote a draft of a newsletter. Now I just need to format it and send it. Managing Every day I record the hours I work on a project or task. And I record word counts.  Every week I review what I’ve accomplished and try to plan for the next week. Sometimes the plan works, other times not so much.  My analysis of this month’s activities revealed a time period that I could use better. And while I’ve only recently changed the way I do things, I […]

Sneak Peek Revision Draft If I Should Die

Lynette M Burrows

A sneak peek is a portion of a story in progress. It’s an early draft which means there are grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and probably some story errors, too. So why post a sneak peek? It’s a tease of what’s coming. It’s a test—does this work? And it’s a peek into the writing process many readers enjoy. This snippet is from the revision draft and is part of a new chapter. So, without further ado, I present this sneak peek-revision draft, If I should Die, book two in the Fellowship Dystopia Series. If I Should Die  By Lynette M. Burrows Day 2 The aroma of warm pancakes and syrup and the rumble of her stomach woke Miranda before her sleep shift had finished. She needed coffee, but the galley already held two people. David stood at the stove flipping pancakes.  “Morning, Captain.” Wanda offered her a mug full of hot, black coffee. “Beryl’s piloting. David’s cooking. Mind if I go forward?” Miranda took the mug. Lifted it and inhaled the fragrance of fresh coffee. “Go ahead.” Someone should get some extra sleep. She sat at the lower helm, sipped coffee, and watched the remaining fog roll off the river. “Peace […]