Romy Sommer

I'd rather be writing these words in relation to the Harlequin Presents contest, but for now I'll be happy that I've won Nanowrimo 2009. Congratulations to everyone who attempted Nano this year. You're a winner just for trying and every word you wrote is a word more than you had 30 days ago, whether you achieved your goal or not. Now roll on the edits!

I notice that some writers call their first drafts 'dirty' drafts and I'm starting to understand why. I'm so close to the end of this first draft, with just the HEA left to write, that I should be dancing around with joy. I have a novel! Or do I? The bare bones are there, but the manuscript has gaping holes, weak spots and whole scenes where I'm not entirely sure what the scene's point is. I'm pretty sure the motivations are there, but sometimes they waver, a bit like a mirage. I also have, as one of my CPs frequently points out, a tendency to write lots of short and rather unsatisfying love scenes. I need to consciously go back and add quality rather than quantity. Then there's the fact that my heroine is a bit of a ballbreaker and needs to be made more sympathetic, and my hero is sometimes a little unloveable or doesn't behave like the true Alpha he is. Dirty draft indeed. I can see its potential, but between real life, kids coughing all night, Na...

Because I'm concentrating my writing efforts on Nano rather than on updating this blog, today's post is short and sweet, and all about the wild kittens living in our garden. We haven't seen much of them all week, thanks to the wintry spell that hit Johannesburg on Monday and which has just gotten worse all week. Today, looking out at the constant rain and the solid grey-white sky, I could easily be in England rather than in Africa a month away from the midsummer solstice!

Over the week-end we discovered three gorgeous kittens living in our garden. The mother is a stray who lives at the school across the road, but she probably chose our garden as we're the only house on the block with no dogs. We think they're old enough to be weaning and they're already wild enough to hiss whenever we get too near. We've decided to try to tame them while they're still young enough, but as I've only ever had domesticated cats before I'd appreciate advice on how to earn their trust. At the moment we're just letting them get used to us being around so they feel less threatened, and we're leaving out milk and food. Any other suggestions? In writing news, this afternoon I finally sent off my revisions for Let's Misbehave to The Wild Rose Press, so I am now waiting on two submissions (counting the Presents contest as a sub!). A huge thank you to all my CPs who have helped me get this far - you know who you are!

No sterling results, but at least I've consistently managed to keep just ahead of the daily targets for the first three days. If I can just keep this up, and the day job doesn't suddenly spiral out of control, I should have a completed novel by the time Harlequin announces the winners of the 2009 Presents Contest. Is it just me or has a month never seemed like such an eternity before?