WInter Is Coming

There's a certain tang in the air when Mother Nature sheds her colorful finery and the skeletal fingers of the trees rattle in the wind. The temps are falling, and this time, you know you won't feel real warmth again until the Spring Equinox rolls around.

Or you go to Cancun.

But I can't pull out the Christmas/Yule decorations just yet. Halloween lights and blankets will stay out until Thanksgiving. Or even December 1st.

Because I'm in the middle of NaNo, and dammit, I want to finish it this year!

So what do you all do in this little quiet space between Halloween and Thanksgiving?

It's NaNo Time!

National Novel Writing Month ("NaNo") officially started at midnight. How many words have I written so far? Zero.

Unless you count this blog.

Last night, I finished updating my inventory in my point-of-sale software. And the inventory sorely needed the updating. It hadn't been done since the last library Author Fair I attended in 2018.

(In 2019, we had to go out of town at the last minute,. Last year, we couldn't have an in-person event.)

Today, I didn't wake up until 3 P.M. because I'm still recovering from the party we had on Saturday. Even good stress drags me into the pit of pain caused by an overloaded body chemistry.

But my NaNo project is ready to go. Wish me luck!

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 237 - F*** the virus! It's NaNoWriMo Time!

 The U.S. is at 9.3 million known infections and 234,567 deaths (believe me, I wish I WAS making up that number). And tomorrow is election day in a heated race for the soul of America.

You know what? There's only so much I can do about those things, and I am doing them. So, it's time to focus on National Novel Writing Month.

Now, a lot of professional writers hate this concept because they feel it demeans their profession.

Which frankly, I find ridiculous. NaNo is whatever you make of it. Plus, a lot of our detractors find out how hard it really is to write that first novel. Once you get over the initial hump, it gets a lot easier (for most writers, not all).

For me though, NaNo is the time of year where I give myself permission to experiment. To have fun. To enjoy the process. Then I can carry those feelings over to the rest of my projects through the year.

It helps that NaNo started on the Celtic New Year's Day. So have some fun!

And Happy New Year!

NaNoWriMo Has Started!

National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo or NaNo if you need to go even shorter, started yesterday.

I stocked up on chocolate and caffeine. I had my fun project ready to go. And I hit the ground...

...kind of crawling. I overslept thanks to the dark, rainy day. I had to do some transferring of funds because GK found his dream car at the dealership down the road. There was paperwork to do, and we still need to contact our insurance agent this morning.

However, I did get words down in the midst of the chaos. And I'm going to keep ploughing through. I have to admit this is the first book I've started since all the testing and treatment for cancer, and I'm not sure how it will change my voice.

But for now, I'm going to have some fun!

When You Lose at NaNoWriMo...

...nothing happens.

That's right. The skies don't fall. The Red Sea isn't parted. Aliens don't invade Earth.

"But, but, but I feel awful!" you scream. "I only wrote 49,999 words! I am a failure!"

No. You are not a failure. You have a novel. Go finish it. Add that last word.

"But it's December!"

So the fuck what?

NaNoWriMo is not about hard and fast rules. It's not about torturing yourself. It's definitely not about finding new ways to make yourself miserable.

NaNoWriMo is about trying something new. Stretching your wings. Having some fun, for the love of [deity of your choice]!

"You're just saying that because you wrote 50,000 words," you say with a sneer.

No, I didn't. I made it about 5,000 words before real life interfered too much. I started November 1st, sitting in a hotel room that didn't even have a desk chair. A miserable cold had me in its talons, and the repairs on my car still weren't completed. Trust me, the rest of the month is a freaking blur. I sat down on Saturday, November 29th, looked around, and thought, "Screw it! I'm crocheting and watching movies."

What it comes down to is knowing when to lay down the hammer on your ass and when to ease up. After fifteen months of stress, my brain was fried. I struggled to type even a paragraph. Luckily, I have family and friends who have no problem telling me I'm being too hard on myself. So even though November is the official National Novel Writing Month, it really doesn't matter when you write.

I just matters that you write.

Black Friday

My insomnia has been giving me fits for the first time in over a year. Funny how the last time I had a problem was right before I left my day job.

Anyway, it's gotten so bad over the last month that I have to do this weird trick to reset my internal clock. I stay up an extra 2-3 hours per night (the time I would have spent tossing and turning) until I'm going to bed at a reasonable hour and actually falling asleep.

What this means is that I went to bed about 8 a.m. this morning and woke up about 4 p.m. DH finds the whole thing hysterically funny. GK simply chalks it up to another one of his mom's weird issues.

They are each going out with friends tonight for dinner. Personally, I'm glad to be missing the Black Friday madness on the streets.

Instead, I'll have a quiet house to work on my last 2K for my NaNo project. Yay, me!

And maybe, I'll be awake for the Texans v. Patriots game on Sunday.

The NaNo Crazies

Our local community college has an adult education program that focuses on hobbies. Fun stuff like photography, belly dancing, tarot card reading. One of the classes is a cake decorating.

All kinds of people sign up for the cake decorating class. Teens, housewives, grandparents, folks that just want to try something for fun.

Now imagine if you will, a bunch of professional chefs are picketing at the main doors of the community college as you walk in. Jamie Oliver, Emeril Lasgasse, Bobby Flay, and a bunch of other people who you've never heard of are waving signs and screaming at you. Things like:

"You didn't pay your dues!"
"How dare you think you're as good as us!"
"You're second-rate and you'll always be second-rate!"

These guys are nuts, right? I mean, you're just taking a cake decorating class.

What exactly are these guys thinking? That you're going to take their restaurants? Their experience? Their customers?

Do they seriously think all these cake people are going pro overnight?

If you ask the picketers, they'll tell you that they are just trying to save the cake students from a lifetime of disappointment. You see, the chef business is incredibly hard!

Yet, that very reaction happens every year in November. Something about National Novel Writing Month (aka "NaNo) drives the long-time writers and other publishing professionals stark raving bonkers. It's hard finding a publishing-related blog that doesn't go apeshit crazy about NaNo.

Even one of my favorite people, Kris Rusch went a little NaNo crazy last week. In Kris' defense, hers was more along the lines of Gordon Ramsey saying, "You're in my fucking kitchen, and you'd better fucking keep up, cupcake!"

Speaking of Mr. Ramsey and his show Kitchen Nightmares, you're always going to have people like Amy of Amy's Baking Company whose estimate of their abilities far outstrips their capabilities. But hey, that happens in every industry. (In fact, I can think of a couple of opposing counsel that fell into that level of delusion.)

The truth is that people like Amy are going to fail. They don't want to learn, and they won't listen to people like Gordon who are trying to help them. You don't need to put them down. The raw pizza and burnt fish they serve are going to drive people away. They definitely aren't a threat to the celebrity chefs, much less people like me.

So where do I fall in my cooking analogy?

I'm a short-order cook at the highway diner. My regulars come in because I serve the comfort food they love. I try to make it a little special, like substituting nutmeg for cinnamon in my French toast. I know I'm not at celebrity chef level, but I'm learning and saving to go to culinary school. I'm taking the cake decorating class because I've been creating birthday cakes for my neighbors and friends. Now that I have roses down pat, I'm experimenting with fondant.

Am I a threat to the celebrity chefs? Hardly.

I just chuckle and shake my head as I walk past them. I'm looking forward to tonight's lesson: fondant monkeys.

It's NaNoWriMo Time!*

*Sung to the tune of the Howdy Doody theme song.

Yes, it's November! That month when thousands of writers sit down to draft (from scratch, mind you) 50,000 words in thirty days. If you want to take up the challenge, there's still time to sign up!

Some people freak about the process. To those writers I say, if you want people to respect your style, then you have to respect theirs. To all the other naysayers I say, go tootsie frootsie yourself!**

National Novel Writing Month is a great way to kick start a new project or force yourself to finish one. As I told a young lady over at The Passive Voice, there's no wrong way to do NaNoWriMo (or "NaNo" for short). It is simply whatever you need it to be.

I'll let you in on a little secret. One of the Bloodlines novels was written during a previous NaNo. If you can guess which one, I'll send you one of my novels of your choice. Just e-mail me at suzan at suzanharden dot com.

So what will be my project this year? I was going to do Zombie Goddess, but there's an issue in the middle that needs a little more percolating thanks to an unexpected turn of events in Blood Sacrifice. (I love it when my subconscious does some weird shit.)

In the meantime, DH has been bugging me since March about writing a full-length novel starring Anthea and Luc, the characters from my short story "Justice". So I thought, why not?

This should be a fun, off-the-wall project after the struggle I went through with the last novel. I view it as a sword and sorcery version of CSI  It all starts with a dead woman found in a wine barrel at Lord Marco's estate...

I've got chocolate, popcorn, tea, Pepsi and a working laptop. I'm ready!



** Yes, I stole that from Craig Ferguson's The Late, Late Show.

No NaNoWriMo for Me

Currently reading - Heaven's Spite by Lilith Saintcrow

I'd planned my little butt off for the 2010 National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo or NaNo if you want to go even shorter).  Last year fell through the cracks between day job and homeschooling.  DH and GK were on board with the plan.  Hell, DH even offered to cook/ordered out every night for November.

But. . .

I swear every time I make a plan the gods laugh and plot.  We now have a time-sensitive family task that must be done before December 4th.  There goes my NaNo time.

I think I'll take some time off from work in January and do my own mini-NaNo

NaNo - Day 25 - Why Writers Write

NaNo Progress - 17,100 words

I know I'm not going to make the 50K mark at midnight on the 30th. I had a good cry about not reaching my goal, DH fed me Haagen Daaz Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream, and we had a long talk about my writing and chances at getting published. The great thing about DH is he believes in me. That belief means everything when I'm self-flogging about bad ideas, sucky characterization and pathetic plots.

Normally, I'm not the self-pitying type. If a concept isn't working, I lay it aside and move on to the next. We talked about recent publishing brouhahas and the waiting to hear about fulls sitting on agent desks. Then DH asked the significant question, "So what do you want out of this writing thing?"

Thirteen years ago, we'd just moved to Houston, 1200 miles from family and friends. I was attending law school full time and felt woefully behind compared to the other first years. (I was considered a first year because South Texas College of Law had a slightly different curriculum than the University of Toldeo, and I still had a bunch of basic courses to take.) And to top everything off, DH had a work assignment in Kuwait that lasted a month.

While in the grocery store feeling lonely, I spotted Harlequin's new Love & Laughter line. The book that attracted me was Stephanie Bond's IRRESISTABLE? I tossed it in the cart, my reward for getting my tort case studies done.

And later that evening, I never laughed so hard in my life. When I saw it was Stephanie's first published novel, I sent her a letter telling her how much I loved her book. It was the first time I ever sent a fan letter to a writer, and I was surprised to get a reply from her a few weeks later. We've kept in touch over the years.

And that's what I want to give to some other reader I told DH, a couple of hours of pleasure and fun when she's having a crappy day and needs an escape.

NaNo - Day 11 - Why Am I Doing This Again?

Word Count as of this post - 13,102

I'm behind. I'm way f***ing behind. *sigh* I should be hitting 20K about now.

I think the difference is 1) my total commute is now 40 minutes instead of the 10 it was last year at this time thanks to a transfer and 2) I'm homeschooling GK. Both put a huge crimp in my day. Last year, I'd put GK on the bus, write for four hours straight, do some errands and meet the bus before heading for work.

I'm trying to count my blessings. I have a job. GK can name every rocket used in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. I have fulls sitting on the desks of agents, dammit!

But this story just begs to be told and the words are not getting their chance to appear on paper! (Well, actually a screen.)

NaNo - Day 7 - You Know You've Been Doing NaNo Too Long When. . .

Word Count as of this Post - 8,422 words

I had a very strange dream last night--strange in its relative normalcy. Ususally, I'm Capt. Piccard guiding the Enterprise-D, or I'm saving the remains of humanity after an apocalypse, or I'm being chased by vampires down the dark Houston downtown streets.

In this dream though, I was at a writer's conference where Neil Gaiman was the keynote speaker. After the speech, Mr. Gaiman complained about he was oh-so-tired of restaurant food, and I invited him to my house for a home-cooked meal.

The house we arrived at wasn't my current home, but the house where my husband and I lived back in Ohio when we were first married. Mr. Gaiman then said he really wished he didn't have to go back to the hotel at all. I apologized for not having a guest room, but he was welcome to the living room couch. He graciously accepted and hugged me because he REALLY did not want to spend another night in a horrid hotel room.

Unfortunately, that's also when DH arrived home from work. Mr. Gaiman quickly steps away and defends my honor, to which DH replies that I only like men 6'5" or taller anyway. Mr. Gaiman, slightly offended, says that if it weren't for the terrible humidity, his hair would poof properly, therefore he would be taller than DH. With a quizzical look, DH asks why Mr. Gaiman doesn't find poofy hair annoying. The two men quickly launch into a discussion of the inherent quirks and pitfalls of poofy hair.

When my son arrives home from a visit to the neighbor boy's house, he's not terribly enthused about another of my writer friends attending dinner until I explained that this is the gentleman that wrote 'The Graveyard Book.' Mr. Gaiman's level of coolness rises in his estimation. He then proceeds to sell Mr. Gaiman on the excellent quality of my pumpkin pie. Mr. Gaiman replies, 'Your mum's pumpkin pie sounds lovely.' So now I have to rush to Kroger's since I have no pumpkin in the cupboard.

We have lovely meal of roast beef, homemade noodles, and green beans during which Mr. Gaiman and I discuss the respective merits and problems of our current wips. Once GK's in bed--after Mr. Gaiman has shown the proper respect for his Star Wars Legos collection--Mr. Gaiman and DH launch into a technological discussion of the problems with Vista and why you need ant traps in the house to prevent the them from nesting in your brand new modem.

A little bored with the men's technobabble, I resume working on my NaNo wip.

Is this boring? Well, maybe. But the dream version of Mr. Gaiman gave me some wonderful tips on my current project. For that, I thank him profusely.

Now, as long as Neil's next journal post doesn't begin with "I had the oddest dream where a fan invited me to her home after my speech at a writer's conference and she made the most marvelous pumpkin pie. . ."

NaNo - Day 2 - Why I Don't Have to Be Michael Jordan to Enjoy Basketball

I was highly disappointed reading yesterday's blog post from a published author I repsect. She shared the sentiment of several other published folks that NaNo encourages the uninitiated, the uninformed and the just plain untalented to try to write a novel in one month. That the novice writer doesn't understand the pain and sacrifice that a REAL writer goes through to produce a novel.

On one hand, I can see her point. NaNo is a major commitment. Hell, writing itself is a major commitment. The creative process of a lot of experienced writers, both published and unpublished can't handle this type of pressure cooker environment.

But all NaNo does is encourage people to put their creative pens to paper and TRY. NaNo will not turn anyone into Hemingway or Nabokov or heck, even King, nor does it claim to. But NaNo may get a nascent Harper Lee to see the potential in herself.

There's a big difference between me shooting hoops with my son and being arrogant or ignorant enough to think I've got a shot on a NBA team when I have no training or experience.

But playing at such an amateur level also doesn't mean I can't enjoy the game. And who knows what will be sparked in my son's imagination if he's willing to work.

Michael Jordan put in a minimum of twelve hours of practice when he played for the Chicago Bulls. If I'm willing to put in that kind of time and practice to become a professional writer. . .

Well, that's the difference, isn't it?

NaNo - Day 1 - The Pet Dilemma

I'd planned on my blog posts being the warm-up exercise for starting NaNo each day. As you can tell by the time of this post, I probably won't get the full 1,667 words typed before midnight.

After pulling a full day at the day job, I came home to a serious family discussion. Our pound puppy, Haley, hasn't been doing very well lately. It started with accidents in the house. She hasn't had an accident in nearly fourteen years.

She's been stiff and arthritic for the last couple of years, but the pronounced difficulty in walking meant no more jaunts to the park two blocks from our house. The last three times we went, DH had to carry her home.

The bizarre behavior came next. She would get lost in the house she'd lived in for the last thirteen and a half years. Or she'd obsessively walk in circles in the middle of the living room.

The inability to keep food down followed. We switched to soft food, which seemed to help for a couple of weeks, but she's still not eating enough to stop from losing weight at an alarming rate.

Then the sweetest little dog in the world bit me twice in the last two weeks. When she brushed against GK's legs, he reached down to pet her, an automatic reaction, and she snapped at him. Thank goodness she didn't make contact. As for DH, well, we were blessed he didn't need stitches.

So tomorrow we take her to the vet and we have to face the fact we may not be bringing her home.

Reality Bites

It's been one of THOSE weekends. I'm doing good to get some of the little things done. That's in addition to the major things like soccer games, working the day job, and meeting a non-fiction deadline.

This week's objective? Get as much crap done as possible so I can enjoy the double delight of this weekend-my birthday and Samhain-before the reality of NaNo sinks in on Sunday.

Keep your fingers crossed that my sanity stays intact.

It's NaNo Time!

For those of you not familiar with Chris Baty's National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo for short or NaNo for even shorter), I strongly suggest taking the NaNo Challenge to jumpstart your manuscript. NaNo is basically a writer's marathon--50K words in thirty days starting on November 1st. The concept is to have a first draft at the end of the month.

It's easy if you're single with no kids or social life and have a marvelous pizza delivery service nearby. A little more challenging if you have to juggle a few things, like a day job plus all of the above. It helps if your household supports your writing career as well. Hey, DH can fry a mean hot dog and whip together the perfect salad, which was what the family subsisted on during the 2008 NaNo Challenge.

In the end, if your endurance holds, you'll have a brand-spanking new manuscript. And like real freshly-birthed babies, it's still red and gooey and needs to be cleaned, but you're exhausted and happy and proud all at the same time.

P.S. There's no epidural for NaNo.

Steven Spielberg Stole My Plot

No, he didn't really. Sometimes great minds follow the same story down the rabbit trail.

Since I've started writing with the aim of fiction publication, twice I've had a brilliant, absolutely brilliant, ideas show up in public. In both cases, I don't know the person personally, they don't know me, and there's no way in hell we could have any cross-pollination of concepts.

In the manuscript currently making the agent rounds, crit partners, beta readers and even contest judges LOVE the hero's best friend, Alex. He needs his own story, they said. Hey, I'm not one to disappoint the fans, and honestly I thought he needed his own story too.

Coming up with a plot was the problem. I'd been racking, slapping and pummeling my brain until I came up with what I thought was a unique and fun story. I wrote the ouline in preparation for the 2008 NaNoWriMo.

And then I went with DH and the Genius Kid to the movies one afternoon last summer. The picture? Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

When we came out, I wanted to cry. Not because it was a bad movie. Let's just say the only major difference between my outline and Indiana Jones 4 was I included the heroine's estranged dad instead of the couple's illegitimate son.

*Sigh*

Instead, I grabbed another outline I had in the idea bank for the 2008 NaNoWriMo, and now have a completed novel awaiting the editing process.

But 2009's NaNoWriMo is twenty days away, and I still don't have a clue for Alex's story. Hey, Mr. Spielberg? You owe me one.