Tuesday Tally, plus Drive

Status of my novel
total words to date: 44,305
pages: 192
completed chapters: 9

Last week's goals:

• keep working on 100 day challenge - still going strong!
  
• find some poetry markets (really this time) - found three markets I'm interesting in submitting to.
  
• finish chapter nine (one really good, long, scene left) - this story keeps adding unplanned scenes! minor characters are finding more importance, and some plot points have changed.
  
• storyboard chapter ten - didn't get to this one...
  

Goals for this week:

• keep working on 100 day challenge
• finalize choices for poetry submissions, and polish/prepare to send out
• storyboard chapter ten
  

Please vote on the poll in the sidebar. Help needed!

I got an email today confirming that my contest entry (Blazing Princess) has been received. Yay! Estimating another eight weeks for results. Speaking of contests, winners for a poetry contest I had entered were announced Sunday. I didn't place. =( Oh well. Time to send more poems out. I have high hopes for one of the poems and will be submitting it to one of the three markets I'm looking at.

My hubby is very supportive of my 2-hour writing Wednesday. One of the great things about writing every day is that I've found it easier to get into my story when I sit down. For the last month or so I was really struggling, forcing out a paragraph here and there. Now I'm in tune with the story again and it has even led me ways I hadn't planned. Good to know the muse hasn't completely deserted me.

I finished chapter nine today. It's umm... 42 pages long... will definitely be split up later.

I've finally got a one sentence hook for my book, but not sure yet if that's the focus I want. Grr. So many aspects to this book. Would help if I could figure out which one is most important. Anyway, here's the current one-liner: A girl must choose to either save the people who killed her mother or lose the magic that has defined her.

On another note, Fox now has the final two episodes of Drive online. Still wish it hadn't been canceled, but I'll still be watching these today with my hubby. I'm a sucker for punishment. Yes, it will leave me hanging, but the process will be enjoyed (watching the show, not the hanging).
You can read a Post Drive interview with the producers, about where the show might have gone, but reading it just makes me wish they were able to film more. *le sigh*

Fox did it again

Why do I put myself up for these falls? Once again I got caught up in a FOX TV show that has been canceled. What show this time? Drive. After only four episodes (in two weeks), FOX has canceled Drive! They have two more episodes filmed, to "air this summer". Why can't they show the two before deciding ratings aren't good enough? I enjoyed this one. The characters were intriguing, good action and drama, engaging plot, lots at risk, good actors. I want to find out what happens next, but now we'll never know if Alex Tully gets his wife back (or find out why she was kidnapped), or get any answers for Corinna Wiles. And if those two episodes somehow manage to finish the race, well, that would be anticlimatic. This wasn't supposed to be a miniseries!

I suppose I set myself up. I know FOX has a bad track record for canceling good show. Which is why many people have stopped watching, which then results in low ratings, which is enough reason for the network to cancel the yet another show. Vicious cycle.

Other shows I loved that FOX has canceled:

• Firefly - (don't get me started on how the network doomed it from the start) great characters, Joss Whedon humor and witty dialogue. at least we eventually got a movie
  
• John Doe - (season one finished, but with a major cliffhanger) loved the mystery, characters, and story idea. wanted to keep watching and find out what really happened to John Doe, and why he knew everything except who he was. at least the secret to his knowledge has been revealed.
  
• Tru Calling - Another that ended with a big cliffhanger with season one, but they did eventually air the six episodes filmed of season two (well, five of the six. last one was a Christmas theme they didn't want to air in Spring).
  

All these shows had good stories, characters, and no reliance on sex and soap opera relationships to carry it (maybe that's why they didn't stay... the irony). Currently, I admit to watching American Idol. Once you get down the final ten it's usually pretty good. There's some talent, and the show has turned out some great artists - Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood... I'll be watching The Loop and Hell's Kitchen when they start up again in June. 'Til Death is awesome - hilarious and so true to married life. They better bring that back for another season. I don't know what they expect of their shows. I'm sure American Idol didn't do awesome in season one. Fox isn't all bad. But they can sure be frustrating.