Author Fest and the Start of NaNoWriMo

The Findlay-Hancock Library is holding their annual Author Fest during the city's Art Walk on November 3rd, from 5:30 until 8:00 p,m, I'll be there along with a couple of dozen local authors.

It's not often I do public appearances because of my health, but I love supporting our local library! Stop by and say "Hi!"

Also, today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month, AKA NaNoWriMo or just NaNo. There are no rules to NaNo. If anyone tells you there are, they're full of it.

The objective is to getting writers to sit down and concentrate on their craft for the month. I like to use is to jumpstart a new novel.

So, if you're a reader or a writer, there's lots of stuff going on this week. On the plus side, the weather should be a tad warmer with no snow!

See you at the library on Friday!

A Day Off That Wasn't

I didn't get my post written yesterday. There was too much going on. Lot's of stuff that needed to be taken care of before the end of the month like the car registration, the AAA membership, dog supplies, etc.

I'm glad I did get everything done because it's snowing right now. Has been for the last two hours. It's hard to believe it was 82 degrees five days ago. The ground is too warm for the flakes to stick, but they're lining the edges of the raised flower beds and the branches of the tiny evergreen trees along our patio.

Halloween itself is quiet. The town's trick-or-treating was Saturday night, so the streets are still now that everyone's home from school and work.

Tomorrow, I'll hit the grocery store, stock up on some chocolate, and start on my NaNoWriMo story. And in between sessions, I'll work on cleaning the house since GK and the Grandpuppy will be here sometime on Sunday.

So for now, I'll enjoy the quiet and the snow.

Happy Halloween!

Thirty Percent Through NaNoWriMo

I'm getting the words in, but not on the project I'd planned to at the beginning of 2022.

Death in Double Mocha is way behind thanks to the multiple deaths in the family this year, not mention the two additional stories that will be audiobooks. Invasion! is supposed to come out December 1st, and I can't afford to lose my pre-order privileges on Amazon. And I'd wanted to do A Hint of Thief for NaNo. I have written a few chapters on it in order to wrap up the events at the end of A Measure of Knowledge and Invasion!

As a friend mentioned, it's like I'm writing three NaNo projects at once.

Looking at timing, I need to take a step back and finish Invasion! first since Elaina is scheduled to do the paperback cover next week.

Then, I need to finish up everything for the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse Kickstarter before the end of the year.

Finally, I can jump back into A Hint of Thief because of the excitement factor of Anthea and Luc being caught in plots, spies, and triple-crosses while trying to keep Quan alive long enough to be crowned.

Yep, my brain is high on stories!

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!

Down to the Wire

This post is going to be short and sweet. Hero In Camera is dropping next Thursday. Normally, I have time to prep for the release, but right now, I'm trying to wrap up the final chapters and edit this puppy before I leave for West Virginia on Monday.

Why am I heading south in the middle of the pandemic? A family member needs a rather important surgery, and they need someone to stay with them a few days to cook and wash up. And I would willingly do anything for them in a heartbeat.

I'm try to get a proper newsletter out the week after next because there's some cool things I want to do before NaNoWriMo kicks in.

Stay safe, everyone, and WEAR THOSE MASKS!

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!

Catching Up on the Backlog

I received the print proofs of Sacrificed and A Modicum of Truth shortly before the Easter holidays. In fact, I took them with me on the road trip to Nashville and started going through them while GK drove.

Unfortunately, I didn't get them finished before everything hit the fan the following week. So guess what I'm trying to finish before NaNoWriMo starts on Thursday?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my formatter can fix the few typos I found, and I can get these two volumes ordered before our library's Local Author Book Signing on November 10th. If I can't, well, there's always next year!

* * *

Something else to keep in mind, the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Trust will be discontinuing both print and e-book edition of volumes 22 thru 27 of the Sword and Sorceress anthologies, according to their most recent newsletter.

If you want copies before they disappear, you'll want to order them well before December 28th!

Dazed and Editing

I've been editing this week. Mostly A Modicum of Truth, but last night, I needed to get out of the apartment for a bit. And when I'm out at a coffee shop, my mind is geared on new writing.

I'm attempting to stick to my writing plan. My original plan of releasing the three superhero books on the same day in late April (right before the release of the next Avengers movie) wasn't going to help kickstart the sales algorithms on Amazon. Too much has changed on their website in the last three years. I took a hard look at what's completed, where I was on the uncompleted projects, and how to maximize my releases.

The next project to finish is the first draft of is Hero De Facto. Except I haven't really looked at the story as a whole in nearly three years.

Sure, I went back and read the first couple of chapters and the last one in order to get back into Harri and Aisha's heads last November to get a jump start on Hero Ad Hoc over NaNoWriMo. But Hero De Facto still needed to be finished itself. So last night while eating some excellent turkey chili, I started reading and editing to get back into the flow of the novel.

I'd forgotten how close this book was to being completed. I forgot how funny and delightful it was. I only got a hair over 600 new words in (pretty low for three hours of concentrated work), but dammit, I had fun.

And it makes me want to get the edits done on A Modicum of Truth and Sacrificed so I can go back to the Hero series and have some more fun.

That's what I love about this job. It's so damn fun!

It's NaNoWriMo Time!

National Novel Writing Month starts today!

I'd hoped to have A Modicum of Truth done by now. Not to mention, reviewed the previous 888-555-HERO novel, write the last two chapters of it, and put together a series bible. All of this in preparation for hitting the ground running this morning.

And as you read this, I'm probably still crashed on my recliner with this nasty little cold, alternating between green tea, cough syrup, and water.

Can I catch up? Of course, I can!

Once the room stops spinning from the severe sinus pressure. Otherwise, I'll be veging for another day or two.

To everyone else starting NaNo on time, break a leg!

I Don't Need No Stinkin' Writing Prompts!

With NaNoWriMo twelve days away, I'm starting to get e-mails about "WRITE THE NEXT GREAT NOVEL! HERE'S FIVE WRITING PROMPTS TO GET YOU STARTED!"

*facepalm*

I thought briefly about checking the creative writing group that meets at the local library. The showrunner provides a writing prompt, you write for thirty minutes, then share your work with the group.

Uh, I don't think so.

Then there's a writer's meet-up in Lima that's run by a local poet.

Poetry isn't really my cuppa, and not what I do. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as Seinfeld would say. But guess what they do? The proverbial writing prompt isn't going to move me forward as a writer.

Ideas aren't my problem. Hell, a pre-made cover advertised by Alter Ego's new cover artist set off an idea for a super sexy dystopian fairytale fantasy on Tuesday. Needless to say, I bought the cover.

And wrote the blurb and two hundred words before I made myself stop and return to A Modicum of Truth.

Honestly, I don't get how a writer can NOT have ideas. I'm like the flipping dog, distracted by every squirrel that runs by. I CAN'T shut off the flow.

What I have to do is shunt it aside. For me, ideas are like a leaky roof dripping onto my brain. I stick a bucket underneath the leak to catch the drip (i.e. scribble down a few notes). Then I need to change out the bucket, which quickly starts filling, while I do my other work. When the next bucket fills, I swap it out for a new bucket so I can concentrate of my current story. At least, for a little while longer.

If you really truly need a writing prompt, unless it's a technique to get your muse unstuck, maybe you should reconsider whether a career in writing is for you.

But if you really, truly need a prompt, here's a real life example:

When I was still a practicing attorney, a male hawk used to sun himself on the sub-roof outside my office window. This was the summer of 2005. That same year, I also took my son to see the Mayan exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural History. Part of the exhibit included the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. 2012 was also the year that our solar system crosses the galactic plane during its orbit.

So, take one or all of:

- a hawk
- the Mayan calendar
- Earth crossing the galactic plane

Guess what? I'm already 40K into the first book a new UF series. No, it's not this year's NaNo project--

Sqiurrel!

NaNoWriMo Has Finished...

...and no, I didn't win. I reached 32,202 new words on Sacrificed. Which was good, but I kept losing focus because I got caught up in fixing some production problems with Zombie Goddess. Which needed to be done for the release, but now I'm a little more than a month behind on everything, i.e. my self-imposed schedule.

I'm not sure what the problem is. Is it SAD or not enough caffeine or too many people at my favorite writing spot or that the local stores have stopped carrying my favorite wine?

Is it the nastiness that seems to have infected the entire country? I've never gotten into a shouting match with another mother at a school before, but damn, I'm tired of people trying to bully me in everyday life. (She was trying to cut in line with her super-size SUV.) A few days later, a high school administrator got bitchy with me because I parked my car exactly where I was supposed to in order to pick up my kid.

Maybe it's dealing with the vagaries of teen hormones. One minute, I'm the greatest mom in the world. The next, I'm the Satan who's trying to destroy his life.

Or maybe it's simply that a project I've been working on since October of 2004 is coming to a close. Twelve years is a long time to be working on one story. And that's what the Bloodlines series is--one gigantic story.

I always get sad when something is over.

Music I'm Listening to Right Now

I'm deep in NaNoWriMo so I need a little more Meghan Trainor to keep me going...

NaNoWriMo Has Started!

INSPIRATION!

The Last Days of Camp NaNoWriMo

I'm still working on Ravaged for Camp NaNoWriMo, but with ten days left and 35K to go, I don't know if I'll hit my 60K word goal for the novel.

Stuff like Camp NaNo is one of the reasons I don't do a lot of group activities with other writers. I'm not saying competition and spurring each other on isn't good. It works for a lot of people.

Unfortunately, my super-competitive AAA+ oldest-child Scorpio personality kicks in in those types of situations. Years ago, the worst result was me destroying friendships.

These days, setting off the "win at all costs" mentality literally leads to adrenal overdrive. For someone whose entire endocrine system is FUBAR'd, it can result in pan at a minimum and death at the maximum. (Wish I was joking about the last part, but I'm not.)

For the most part, I can keep my competitive streak leashed. But if I'm not diligent, I pay for the inattention later.

So I don't know if I'll do Camp NaNo next year, much less NaNo itself in November. I want to. It's actually a terrific program for jump-starting a project that's been on the back-burner due to LIFE.

On the other hand, NaNo would mean I'd get the Bloodlines series done by the end of the year.

Decisions, decisions...

The End of NaNoWriMo 2015

After an excellent start on Ravaged for National Novel Writing Month, I crashed and burned in the middle of November. First came the week of hell from the coordinated Daesh (I refuse to call them by the other name because it is the Greek name for one of my deities, and I find it disrespectful that the media calls them that) global attacks.

Yes, folks, there were more than just the ones in Paris.

I admit I was distracted by all this because I was watching them succeed in ways I couldn't believe. They want to seed their hate, and we let them. We help them. Real life elements of issues I address, or plan to, in the Justice series. But that's a discussion for another place and another time.

I managed to get back on track the following week, only to be blindsided by a penicillin-resistant bacterial infection. Fever, chills, incredible pain, sleeping twelve hours a day. Two trips to the doctor. Serious concern that the infection had settled in a major organ. The sulfa drugs kicked in time for cooking Thanksgiving dinner, but I had to take frequent breaks during preparations and then a major nap after our guests left.

It was the 29th before I could hold a coherent thought. The grand total was 18,015 words. I didn't bother updating the last 200, which I wrote after the wild finish to the Browns-Ravens game last night.

Some people would consider this a NaNo failure. I don't. My goal was to get a good start on the novel while juggling the demands of editing and proofing a couple of finished projects. I didn't succeed on the second half, but it just means my to-do list rolls over into December, and I keep chipping away at my projects.

Here's the thing to remember: I have finished novels. I know how. And Ravaged will be finished. I just can't tell you when right now.

NaNoWriMo - The Half-way Point

I'm still plugging along with Ravaged. Before I start this morning, I'm at 17,065 words. Yep, I know. At the 18th, I should be around the 28K mark.

Honestly, I got distracted over the weekend by the events in Paris. I'm usually pretty good about keeping distractions at bay, but this time, I was more worried about the ramifications here in the U.S. This isn't a political blog, and I won't get into it any more than that.

The other problem, which is more of a real problem, was tying events in Ravaged back into the events of Blood Sacrifice. It's been two years since I even read my own damn book, I'd forgotten a lot of details. I spent a good chunk of writing time yesterday re-reading the scenes regarding the Sunshine Believers. For a group that were intended as throw-away bad guys in Zombie Love, they've become quite integral to the overall plot.

Can I catch up and "win" this year's NaNo? That's a good question. I don't know, and I'm not going to worry about it. What I'm going to do is plunge ahead because the shit's in the story is about to hit the fan.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!

It's NaNoWriMo Time!

Yesterday started National Novel Writing Month, a crazy, fun-filled thirty days where writers, from newbies to multi-decade vets, plan to write a 50,000-word novel. Some succeed; some don't. In the end, it's really a question of learning to push your limits.

In my case, it's a question of learning how to pants. In other words, trusting my subconscious instead of planning every minute detail. (In case, you haven't figured it out, I'm an A++ personality. LOL)

On top of practicing my pantsing, I'm working on juggling  the various elements of being a publisher. To that end, I need to get my daily word count in for Ravaged, which is Book 7 of the Bloodlines series and my NaNo project for 2015.

On top of that, I'm still proofing the print copies of Blood Magick and Zombie Love, waiting for my beta reader to get back to me about A Question of Balance, approving the e-book cover of A Question of Balance, send out prizes for a blog contest for Alter Ego, work on Zombie Goddess (which is worked on AFTER the daily word count of Ravaged) because it needs to released first, and squeeze in a few words on Sacrificed while waiting in line to pick up Genius Kid from school.

And that last one brings me to another observation. Some writers think they can only write in the perfect room at the perfect temperature, wearing the perfect clothes, sipping the perfect drink and nibbling the perfect chocolate.

Um, no. That's actually a good way to fuck yourself up as a writer.

I'm currently writing Sacrificed on the note function of my ancient iPhone 4 during the five to ten minutes I'm sitting in the car pick-line of the local high school. I can't focus for two hours with my tea like I prefer. Yet, I've written around 5K in those few minutes four-five days a week since school started around August 15th.

So even if the idea of writing 50K in thirty days freaks you out, remember there are other ways of working toward your goal.