Dispatches from the writing cave

*rubs face blearily and blinks into the setting sun*

Okay, here I am! I did get my hair dyed (see above) so I look less like a bog creature and more like a writer lady. But my coffee consumption is on high-alert levels and my desk is covered with a lot of post-it notes that have story ideas scribbled on them in a strange short-hand I usually can't remember an hour later. ("What does 'Max, sneakers, how does that affect mom relationship' mean anyway???)

Current word count of this second-draft: 53,835 (wheeee!) This is just over the halfway point, and as any editor will tell you, this is when your characters should start, um, breaking those hard-and-fast rules they've set for themselves (*wink*)

Days left to finish: 13

On-page flirt factor: Fuck, I don't know, like A BILLION. These two have bantery chemistry for days and it remains challenging for me to get them to a) shut up and b) go into their own scenes and do things on their own.

Have they kissed yet? Um, no. But I did let them do some very sexy and breathy brushing of lips. Classic me. And there has been a sexually-charged hug!

And because I am extra evil, here are literally the last lines I was writing before I closed out to send this newsletter. Unedited and subject to change, of course:

***
Since she couldn’t see me, I closed my eyes and let my body move with an instinct I wasn’t sure I trusted yet. I wrapped my arms around Fiona and held her tight. Let my lips drop to the crown of her head, where I inhaled sunshine and strawberries and literally ached with wanting her.
And not just in all the dirty and depraved ways I had her in my fantasies.
Like wanted her.
***