I'm Addicted

Addicted to what, you might ask? Well, nothing bad. Not really. It might be kind of good, even.

Let me start off saying – I like to keep spreadsheets of my characters. When you write a series, it's almost a requirement, especially if that character shows up in more than one book. My problem – I didn't start keeping a detailed spreadsheet until I was writing My Sunny Vampire, my third book (but first in my series).

Now I'm thinking about Book #5 (which I don't have a name for, yet) and I needed some information on a secondary character that shows up in all my vampire books. So I opened my spreadsheet to check him out and discovered – nothing!

Oh sure, I had his height, eye color, and age, but nothing important. Then I realized where that information was stored – in Sarah's Turn, the sequel (Book #2) to The Uncommon One (Book #1).

Okay, easy enough. I'll just open the document and look for the information I need. BIG MISTAKE. As I scanned the book, I kept stopping. Ooh, this is where so & so happens. Ooh, I like this scene. Next thing I knew, I started to READ it.

Why is this a problem? #1: I was at work (oops) and #2: Sarah's Turn is complete, but hasn't been read by anyone yet. I've been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for my daughter to go over it first (and point out any glaring errors) before I sent it off to readers. But it being a sequel, there wasn't any rush (except for my friend who wants to read it, but that's another issue).

If I start reading it, I'll want to fix it. And being so apart from the story (since Dec 2010), I should just start at the beginning, make my notes (fix any thing that pops out at me) and get my information. Heck, it might help me get into the world I created for Book #5 (since there are more than one character in this book that will show up in that one).

So yes, I'm addicted. To my stories. I open up the book and I want to read them, which leads to getting lost. Big time.

And now I can't wait to get back to Sarah's Turn. It really has been too long.