Weekly Writing Intentions: August 5, 2023
Hi, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series.
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Daily Diary, Day 1070: This past week I slowed the exercise down a bit, hit my target of 90 minutes, but I still got in at least one walk a day. However, whether because of the heat earlier in the week, or another attempt to get morning walk up to 40 minutes again, or something else going on, my blood sugar started registering higher, then a couple of low readings, which meant that over all, didn’t feel that great. So, I signed up for a yearly “wellness” check at doctors on this coming Wednesday, and I have gone back to only a 30 minute walk at a time. My intention is to keep at this pace next week, and see what the doctor has to say.
The pre-orders of Dandy and the Dognappers, while not nearly on the level of my full-length novels, are steadily ticking upward, and I am definitely on schedule to get the final version done. This past week, I got feedback from all six beta readers, made the edits, and the newest draft is now in the hands of the person who copy-edits. If all goes well, I will get this draft back in the next couple of days, make changes, and send on to the proof-reader. I have asked that she have the proofed copy back no later than August 13, which gives me a couple of days to get the final draft done and start to upload to the retailers for the August 25 publication.
As far as other things I accomplished last week, I did write and put up an Authors Corner substack post about why my series is a cozy mystery, which people responded to very positively.
However, I didn’t find time in my regular schedule of maintaining the house and myself and my various zoom meetings and phone calls to start back on book 5 of Caelestis series. But I did start this process this morning, setting up the basic Scrivener Project for the book. The first thing I did is decide to go back to the original name I had for this book, In Ddaera’s Embrace, because I think it will fit on the cover better (smile.) I always feel more confident going into writing with a title, and I intend to make some good progress this coming week on developing the broad first outline for this book.
In addition, this Thursday I will put up my first recommendation post that includes recommendations for substack newsletters I think some of you might be interested in.
But most importantly, I am going to keep working at trying to get that blood sugar back down again, while still maintaining my exercise routine!