Moments for the Heart

Hey everyone. You can follow along with the progress of my in progress novel, Little Reminders of Who I’m Going to Be. This is the third and final installment of the Little Reminders series.

I am currently in the editing stage and look to submit a final draft at the end of February 2023. I will post updates on my progress on this page. You can keep up with all that is going on below.

Stephanie Marshall is the owner of a successful Charlotte, NC writing firm. She and her staff advertise for some of the biggest names up and down the east coast. Even though the writer’s life is exciting, and her company is in demand, she struggles with the monotony of home life. Stephanie is on the verge of an affair and has chosen to take the next step in that relationship.

… And then there is Carter.

Our angelic friend is back, and he visits Stephanie to teach her three lessons about her life. One that involves her past, one about her present life, and one that will challenge her to the reality of the choices she makes.

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4/22/2023: It has been a couple of months, and then some. I am please to say that yesterday I completed my final edit of Little Reminders III and submitted it to WordCrafts. I am about two months behind my personal schedule as I wanted it in their hands by March 1st. But that is not really a big deal as we don’t go to print until October. I just want to give their editor plenty of time to go over it and get it back to me for me to read over their suggestions. That will take a couple of weeks at least, depending on my work schedule. We shall see what happens from here. I am also looking forward to signing the contract and Carolyn painting the cover. Those come next. Stay tuned!!

2/6/2023: Editing is going much quicker than I anticipated. I guess because this week has been slow with work. Well, there was NO work. Disappointing, but what can you do. So, I am on Chapter Seventeen of Twenty. There are also three Epilogues. Three, you may think? Yeah, there are three stories essentially going on that need wrapping up. You will understand once you read the book. They could be written as chapters 21-23, but they are not really moving the story along. Chapter 20 ends the story. The others are wrap ups. If you have read the other books, then you know what I mean. The first book had three epilogues. Although I think they ended up within one, with just separators within the one. Trust me, it works.

I was also boosted today as I read my weekly Weekend Writing Warrior comments. I always wonder how my method of writing comes across to the reader, and for you to tell me of your impressions reading just a snippet of the book is exciting. Thank you for the positive vibes. You are all amazing.

Within the editing though, I had hoped to add more to increase the word count. I don’t know why, but having a novel below 50K made me twitch. And it seems that this is where Little Reminders III is heading. But after going through it, I am growing more comfortable with it. It covers all the bases, doesn’t bore, doesn’t leave anything out, and will leave a reader just on the edge enough to want more.

1/22/2023: Editing chapter nine right now. It is going okay. I will slide into a groove, but then I will hit a road block and spend two hours on a paragraph restructuring it to make it sound the way it needs to. It is interesting how one word or phrase can make or break a paragraph. Even moving a sentence around within the scene can make a difference. I spent half a day on one scene, but finally got it to work out. I know my characters were getting frustrated moving back and forth within the scene.

Speaking of scenes, I was able to build upon a couple of scenes that needed filling out. Not that I’m trying to add words, but I still have that low word count gnawing at me. Trust me though, what I am adding is good stuff and needs to be there. It was like my characters were telling me that they needed to do something here or say something there and it all worked out. We shall see what happens next now that we move into where all the action happens.

1/14/2023: Half way through January and I have about four chapters edited. I did get word from WordPress that we will have a October/November release for LROWIGTB. I am excited for that and it will light a fire for me to get this edited by March 1, which was my target date anyhow. I would like to give the book a bit more depth though, not fluff, because 50K just doesn’t seem like enough. But fear not dear reader, I am not going to put words in this novel that do not belong. If it ends up being 50K when I am done editing, so be it. So far it is at 8500. I am not sure what that is compared to the original, but I feel I have cut a bit from the first draft. However, I am not to that point were I felt I needed to add Jason scenes yet. We shall see as I move into the next few chapters. I am growing more confident with the intro. But that is the easy part.

1/1/2023: Here we go everyone. A new year and it is time to start the editing process on Little Reminders III. The most recent update that I do have is that this book has been submitted to WordCrafts Press. I did that a couple of weeks ago due to an email that was sent telling us that we needed to get our books submitted in order to secure a 2023 release date. Since I am anticipating a October/November 2023 date, I quick edited the first three and submitted my entry. According to Mike, since I am already a WCP author all submissions are just a formality, I still get nervous about sending anything in. Especially since I still haven’t heard back. But it has been two holidays so I shouldn’t expect anything for at least another week as the earliest.

I am now eager to dig into the edits. My biggest concern is how short the book is. I don’t mind a quick read, but I also want to make it great. We shall see. One page at a time, one chapter at a time. I begin tomorrow, today being a Sunday, I don’t work on anything. I am excited to see how Stephanie and the crew come off with sitting on the shelf for a month. You may have caught them in my snippets for Weekend Writing Warriors. I haven’t doctored those posts too much. Maybe a bit for clarity, but nothing major for structure. That begins in the morning. That is unless I wake up to a job from Aaron or another client. We shall see how it goes.

I promise to keep you better updated this go around. Sorry I kept y’all in the dark through the first draft. But I will do better now. I am shooting for completion by March 1st. I don’t want to take too long, but I don’t want it to be done too quickly and miss something. There is a comment section below if you care to share anything. Thank you friends for your support.

11/26/2022: Well isn’t that a fine how do ya do. I didn’t update this page the entire time I was writing Little Reminders of Who I’m Going to Be. Guess I was so into it that I didn’t think about it.

Well it is drafted.

As you can tell, the novel just barely made NaNoWriMo standards. I was fairly shocked that only hit 52K. I was sure that I would hit 60 to 65K with this novel. I had so many ideas for it going in. Each scene played in my mind clearly. I suppose when you get down to it, you can only tell so much with a scene without overplaying it. And I didn’t want to bore you all, nor did I want dwell in the moment of trying to make the book into something that it wasn’t intended to be.

As I’ve mentioned, it is a slight spin on A Christmas Carol. The main character, Stephanie is taken through her past, present, and in through her future, to see how much life is in light of an event that is presented to her.

Well, when I pick this book up again to edit it, I will see how it reads and see if any additions are warranted. Usually during the edit a writer is cutting. Who knows, maybe I will see an area that needs clarification or a scene that just needs more. 50K is just too short. To put it in perspective, The first book was 75K, the second just under 70K.

10/22/2022: First of all, Happy Birthday to my oldest son, Roger. He is 29 today. Wow. My oldest son is going to be 30 next year. I feel every inch of oldness that I am. Okay, that out of the way. Now that The Five Barred Gate II is complete I can set my eyes on NaNoWriMo22 and Little Reminders III. It is finally here. Ever since I wrote ‘The End’ last November to LRII this book has been on my radar. I have know exactly what it was going to be about. So for the last couple of months I have been developing the full concept and writing an outline. … Yes, readers, Jeff S. Bray is writing an outline for a book. I usually have a soft outline with hints of what I want to write, but this book is much more detailed. I have said it would be, but now that it is complete, it is more in depth than much of what I have written in the past. Especially the ending. usually I have no clue where my book will end. This one has a finale already written mentally. Now my task will be getting from Point A to that finale within the outline.

Oh, and I know that NaNoWriMo doesn’t start for another week and a half, but I have penned a little bit of it. The Prologue. But that just sets the stage. Cant wait to get to the nitty gritty Nov 1.

9/14/22: Announced this project today. NaNoWriMo opened the door. So, I am able to announce the title of the book. Little Reminders of Who I’m Going To Be. So far, I have the characters lined out and the Prologue written. It will be interesting. Okay. I bet you would like to know about the premise. This book will take place immediately after the events of Little Reminders of Who I Was. We leave Carter and Gabriel in the middle of an interesting conversation. Gabriel hints at Carter’s new assignment having to do with a certain well known writer. I will tell you more after the release of Little Reminders of Who I Was. Don’t want to give away the ending. Just to say that this will be an adventure that will be nothing like Carter has ever been on and will definitely keep readers on the edge of their seats.