90K... and Some Other Stuff ☺

In writing:

I hit 90K last night on IE. I only have 5-10K left and I'm DONE with the shitty first draft!! I've written between 3200 and 4200 words each day the last couple of days, and I hope to hit at least 3K again today. It's been slow because my last few chapters all have some stuff already written, which means when I go to finish each scene, I have to redo the old past tense, 3rd person voice since I'm not writing all new stuff in present tense, 1st person. I also added a whole new chapter that was over 3K words, so even though I love it and I feel accomplished, I don't feel any closer to my goal since it didn't cross anything off my to-do list.

My fMC (female main character) is suddenly a bit spunkier than before, thanks to my 30 day forray into a fantasy world where my fMC was a bad ass vaampyr. And me 2nd mMC (duh, male main character) has wisened up a bit and now they have spent the last 3 chapters fighting. The 1st mMC is doing his own thing, heating up my screen, and at this very moment all hell is breaking loose.

It's wonderful. ☺

In life:

I have a job interview for Tuesday! A company I interviewed for back in August just called me back. They want me to come in for another interview for a different position. Maybe I'll like it better than I liked the first position. They gave that one to someone else, so hopefully this one will be a better fit for me. It's just down the road from my house, so it's very convenient. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Christmas is coming up. Big duh. Shopping is not going well since we have no money. Maybe I'll get this job and get a paycheck right before Christmas? Yeah, that's pushing my luck. We'll see.

My neck has been killing me lately, giving me a really bad headache in one certain spot. So I'm sitting here with one of those ThermaCare heat wraps on it and Icy Hot (mmm my favorite smell!) on my jaw and every place in my neck that isn't covered by the wrap. It sucks and I can't turn my neck. Grrr.

That's about it for now. I was really just excited to share my word count.

While I'm here, I'll share my favorite line that I wrote last night. I literally punched the air and went "Bow!" (or something similar to that) after I typed it. It was just. That. Good.

Standing just outside the bathroom door with tears in his grey eyes is my husband. And it looks like he heard every word I didn’t say.

Now, out of context, it probably sounds weird. How can he hear what she doesn't say? ......
You'll just have to read it to find out ☺

NaNo's Over -- Now what??

Well, I did it. I wrote over 50,000 words in 30 short days. It was tough, but I loved it. But now I have this nagging question.... What do I do now?

I picked IE back up and made some drastic decisions about it. Instead of 3rd person, past tense, which has ALWAYS been my preferred writing style, I've decided to switch to 1st person, present tense. I feel like the whole thing flows more smoothly, and readers can connect with the MC much better this way. My opinion was backed up by my loyal reader, Mandy... and I *will* make her pay for the 80,000+ words I now have to revise!!!

So, here's my goal. I want to have IE finished by the new year, the rough draft that is. Then, I'm going to spend January revising her. And revising her. And revising still. And Mandy's going to help. And then I'll revise again.

THEN... my goal, as crazy as it sounds, is to have it revised to the point where I'm not ashamed to show it to people... and submit it on February 2, 2009, to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, found here: http://www.amazon.com/abna . I know it's a really long shot that I'll have anything actually finished by then, and this contest was part of the reason I wanted the first draft done by Halloween. But it's at least a goal that will keep me moving towards finishing the first draft by 12/31. Even if she doesn't get polished enough to submit by 2/2/09, she'll still be pretty damn close. Case in point: Since NaNo ended, I've already written 5,038 words on IE and done some revision on the tenses that I mentioned earlier. That's pretty good, considering I took the first two days of the month off from writing.

So, there are my writing goals for the forseeable future. I'd love to including finishing Vaampyr in there, but I want to focus on IE first. I WILL work on Vaampyr whenever possible, like when I get burnt out on IE for the day. But IE is much closer to being done than Vaampyr, so it's my main concentration right now.

In the new year, I'd like to finish IE (totally), finish Vaampyr totally and give her a name, start my next novel (hopefully to be a series of novels), and complete at least one polished short story per month. Plus, shop those shorts around. Oh, and I'd like to revise the small stack of shorts I have ready right now, and shop them. AND, I'd like to get the rough drafts of my two Unfinisheds done.... it'll be a busy year, but I'm really getting into writing mojo lately so I think I can do it. Especially since I can't afford to be in school right now, so I have a lot more free time than I have in the last several years.

Nothing new besides all that. Still job-less, still school-less, still Lillie-less... and still pretty upset about all of that. But I'm writing, and that's really important to me right now.

So, Did I Win or Not???

Sunday was a day of great pain. I sat in front of the computer for hours. HOURS! Trying to write 4100 measly words. Words that, the day before, came SO easily. By Saturday's standards, this should have taken me less than 2 hours.

Sunday's job was to write the 2nd to last chapter, and try to squeeze in part or all of the last chapter, too. I managed to write about half, or less, of the penultimate chapter, and couldn't even think about the last one. I also filled in a few hundred words on a chapter in the middle that was blank. It felt good to add some meat to it, but I don't think it moved the story along very well.

Before I tell my final word count, how about an excerpt taken directly from the last day of NaNo.
Warning: Spoiler Alert!!!

**Gareth**

I blink, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness around me. Darkness is my home, so it doesn’t take long. There’s a heavy weight on my chest, and I shift my weight underneath it until I hear a moan.

I turn my head to the source of the moan. Aureylia's head is on my chest, blood from an open neck wound seeping into my fur. I groan as I realize we’ve laid here so long that I’ve gone through the change in my sleep. "How in Hades did I sleep through that?"

Her voice is soft and sleepy when she answers. "I was just wondering the same thing. We both did." She pushes herself to a sitting position and stares at me. I can’t read the expression on her face, but the blood dripping over her naked breasts glows in my green tinted vision. She stands, bringing a hand to her neck. "Does your bite hurt as much as mine?"

I frown as I get to my feet -- which, in this form, means standing like the animal I am, on all four paws. "Maybe that’s why I slept so much. I’ve never been bitten by a vampyrus before. And yes, it hurt. But it felt amazing." I wiggly my hairy eyebrows at her, and she chuckles.

"I know." She looks around the cave with a frown. "The sun will be up soon. We both slept through the rest of the day and the whole night. Hades! The ceremony’s tonight and I haven’t caught the killer." She looks down at me through narrowed eyes.

I can’t read her mind at the moment, but her expression says she’s not sure if that statement is correct or not. She still doesn’t trust me. Good; she shouldn’t. A hunger pain rips through my stomach and I growl, baring my teeth in surprise.

She jumps back with wide eyes.

I walk toward her hungrily, unable to stop myself. After being so satisfied last night, the animal in me wants more. And I want it from her. I tilt my head to the side and grin, which I'm sure looks pretty scary coming from an extra large wolf.

In a flash, Aureylia disappears. I sniff the air, only to catch her scent trailing off as she flies out of the cave.

**Aureylia**

I sneak into the vampyre compound invisibly, since all my clothes are ripped beyond the ability to wear them home. Thoughts and memories swirl in my head. Pinning Gareth to the ground, able but not willing to kill him right then. The feel of his hands squeezing my arms. His scent when I found him in the cave, which was a mixture of appetite and anger. He could have killed me, yet I succumbed to him like a helpless human -- if he is the killer, I can understand the power he has over his victims, and it's going to be tough to destroy him finally. The look of hunger in his eyes when I trapped him on the ceiling and his lips grazed my neck. I'm such a fool! How he tasted like salt, but so sweet at the same time. The sound of his heart pounding wildly while he was beneath me, or above me, or beside me; erratic and dangerously quick, yet strangely in rhythm with my own. Oh, Coven, what have I done?

Keep in mind, this IS a very rough first draft. As Anne Lamott says, in Bird by Bird, it's a "shitty first draft."

Anyhow, back to my main point. Yesterday was a painful, painful day. I wrote for hours, yelling at the screen, mapping out the chapter with no luck of writing it, and being all around in a really bad mood.

BUT... I managed to reach 50,302 words!!! I won NaNo 2008!!!



So, now the big question is.... what happens now??

My December writing plans entail:

Finish Isaac's Eyes (first draft)
Finish Vaampr (which is STILL what I'm calling my untitled NaNo novel)

That's it. I REALLY want to add a few more things in there so I can say I accomplished certain things from my 2008 writing goals, but I won't. I'll save them for 2009.

Speaking of 2008 goals, I have a month to do all the things I said I'd do but never did. I'll have to find my list and see what all those things are. It might be difficult to do them without a job... but I'll see what I can do!

I'm off now to reward myself for writing over 50,000 words in 30 days. Until next time...

Almost There!

I just need to toot my own horn a little here. I sat down today with exactly 8800 words left to write to beat NaNo 2008. In a mere 2 hours and 8 minutes, I've crossed 4704 of those words off.

My current total is 45,904 words. Even though being "on track" would have me at 48,343 words, considering that a week ago I still was barely over 30,000... I'm psyched! I've never written at the pace of 2300 words per hour before -- I thought Thanksgiving's 1700 words was amazing.

I wrote a pivotal, exciting chapter today, and while I know it's not perfect, it accomplished its purpose and I'm SO excited. I'm going to take a break to do some Christmas shopping, and hopefully get some more words in before I go to bed tonight, so that tomorrow I can not only meet, but exceed my goal.

I've found a new writing pattern that I think I will adhere to because, at least today, it has proved to be extremely fruitful. If you've ever had a word race with someone, you know that writing for a certain amount of time then stopping tends to help you. A prime example of this is the writer's aid website www.lab.drwicked.com/writeordie. Well, I noticed today that in the first 28 minutes of writing, I had crossed the 1100 threshold. I was, of course, ecstatic, but I had hit a momentary pause in action. So, I took a 3 or 4 minute break to get a drink, stretch, and put on a fan because the office where I write is very hot. Then, I sat down to write for another 30 minutes. I continued this pattern all day, writing only 30 minutes at a time then stopping for a few minute break. Each time I did this, I was able to write the entire 30 minutes practically without stopping, and generate ideas during my short breaks. This will be my new habit, at least until it fails me.

If you're a writer and you're reading this, I suggest you try a similar pattern. If 30 minutes seems to be too much, try 15 or 20. Give it a shot!

Another suggestion I have, and I know I'm not alone on this, is music. It distracts some people, but I like to make a playlist for each character and listen to those songs when I'm writing in that character's POV. For instance, my werewolf/murder suspect's playlist has a lot of Disturbed, Buckcherry, and select Nickleback songs (Thanks, Mandy!). Listening to songs in a certain genre or with a certain theme really helps me keep out *other* distractions like the sound of Guitar Hero being played in the next room, while focusing on the scene at hand.

In other news, I finished Austin's Christmas stocking! I'm almost done with Lillie's. Here's a picture of Austin's, that I sewed by hand after cutting out 89 pieces of felt with dull scissors, and threading teeny tiny needles with colored thread.



That's it for now. If I get more writing done, or anything exceptionall exciting happens later, I'll let you know!

NaNo: The Home Stretch

My current word count is 38,672. I have to hit 50,000 by 11:59pm EST on Sunday. That gives me 3 whole days to write 11,328 words. I had been on track til last week, and now I'm playing crazy catchup. But I wrote 4,000 words yesterday, so if i can keep that up, I'll be set.

Thanksgiving was good. We spent it at my sister-in-law's house, where the whole family gathered for the first time in forever. And we played Phase 10 until 11pm, which was amazingly fun. Then I came home, wrote 1700 words in an hour, and crashed. No Black Friday shopping for the poor!!

That's it for now. Not much to say. MUST WRITE!

... Excerpts coming, I promise. Hang in there, Mandy!!! ☺

Stupid Computers!

So I just wrote a post to check in real quick... then there was an error and it wouldn't take. Now I have to write it all over again. In a nutshell, here it was:

There are 8 writing days left until the end of NaNo, and I'm 4 days behind schedule. Blame it on cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family, sans Lillie and her mom and dad, last night, and the two days of preparation for it. The dinner went well, although the stupid turkey took over 4 hours to cook when it usually only takes about 2-3, so it wasn't done til everything else was eaten. But I made a kick-ass pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmm....

As far as my book goes, it's coming along. I just haven't had time to sit and write cuz I've been cooking and cleaning and running errands. I've gotten about 50 words in the last couple days. But I've been jotting notes down like crazy, so when I sit down to write tonight and tomorrow I know I can get caught up.

I'm sad that I haven't seen Lillie in a week, and her parents are being idiots so I probably won't get to see her for a while. :( I still don't have a job, which makes the holidays really depressing. And I've had to dip into my money for school next semester/summer so now I don't know if I'll be able to go, since the money I had wasn't quite enough in the first place.... Yay, stress!!!

That's it for now. In the next couple days, Internet-willing, I'll post some more updates, including an excerpt or two! :)

Just Checking In...

Nano, Day 11.

Word Goal at the end of today, in order to stay on pace (1,667 per day) = 18,337.

My total Word Count (wc) as of right now = 16,895.

Somehow, I got behind. But that's OK. I wrote 3,867 today, which is a lot better than the 92 I wrote yesterday, or the 403 I wrote the day before that.


Life has been crazy the last few days. I've had my 6-month-old niece who I ADORE since October 29. She just went home last night :( And we've also babysat my 13-month-old nephew Keegan several of those days. So, 2 babies + a wc goal of 1,667/day... doesn't always happen.

I've been writing and playing online since 10am. It's now almost 6pm. I'm going to sign off for the day and hopefully write 3,106 words tomorrow so be on pace at 20,004. It's been a rough day so I don't have anything special to say, really. Maybe tomorrow...

Thanks for checking in!

What It's Like to Be Me

Here's what it sounds like to be me right now:


Me, to the 6-month-old in the walker who's covered in squash and peas -- Lillie. Lillie. Eat your squash, baby girl. Turn around. Lillie...
Mike (Hubby), to the 13-month-old standing on the back of the walker trying to play with Lillie -- Keegan. Keegan, leave Lillie alone. Let Lillie eat.
Me -- Lillie, don’t grab Keegan's ear.
Mike -- Keegan, that’s the doggie’s bone. Give Chesney back his bone! ... Chesney, get your bone....
Me, to the kitten trying to stick his snout into the jar of baby food -- Charlie, that’s Lillie's.
Me -- Lillie, don't grab the kitty's ear. Be nice. Lillie, eat your squash. Keegan, don’t hit Lillie on the head with the doggie toy.
Mike -- No, Ches, that’s monkey. Get your bone. Keegan has it. Keegan, don’t hit the baby on the head. Give Chesney his bone.

**Keep in mind that all this is pretty much at the same time**
(A few minutes later)

Mike -- Smile Lillie. Where’s that pretty smile? Aww, Keegan’s giving you hugs. Can you smile for the camera? --
Me -- Lillie, eat your peas. Ignore the camera. --
Mike -- Honey, move your arm. She smiled but I missed it cuz your arm was in the way. Lillie. Baby girl. Aww, you gave Keegan kisses. Darn, camera’s too slow. Give him more kisses. --
Me -- Keegan, don’t lay on top of the walker, you’ll get stuck. Charlie, get off Lilile’s head! Lillie, eat your peas!

**This was about an hour out of our day.**


Aaaanyhow....

Writing-wise, I'm sitting at 10,321 words. It's Day 6 of NaNo, which means to be "on track," I should be at 10,002. So, I'm on track! The last couple of days were kind of slumping; I only wrote around 400 words each. Luckily I had gotten ahead on Days 1 and 2 so I never actually got behind.

I'm a little worried, because usually the slumps don't start happening until Week 2, I'm told. But, these weren't writing slumps. They were just life-got-in-the-way slumps. So I think I'll be OK.

Alright. I told myself I'd put up excerpts only after I'd gotten a bit under way. Well, I'm officially 20% toward reaching my goal, and I think reaching the 10K mark is a good enough time to post a short excerpt. So, without further ado.... here is the first look at my fantasy vaampyr novel. I apologize for the formatting issue, but I can't seem to make any indents and the block quote feature makes the lines all wiggy. So, you'll just have to make do if you want to read ---

I stare at the woman on the ground, her red hair cascading around her pasty face like a fan. Her eyes are closed, but I know from memory what color they are -- clear, like running water. Except last night, when I found her at the mercy of the younglings, they were a misty gray color, almost like my grandfather’s.

A ripple of hunger washes over me and I growl at her still body. The Purest. What a joke. She fell so easily, and didn’t put up a fight. I run my hands over the cold skin of her shoulder, pausing just before her sheer sleeve began to cover her arm. Her skin feels different when I touch it with my human skin instead of my wolf skin.

The hunger is pain now, and a moan escapes my lips. Though it’s daytime and I'm in human form, my fangs bare as I snarl at my enemy. Hunched over her like I am, I feel like an animal. I am an animal. I touch the bare skin below her neck, running my fingers through a valley of cleavage and over the hardened material of her corset. The laces tickle my fingertips as I make my way to her stomach, palming it in wonder.

They say she will bear children. She’ll be the first of her kind to reproduce the human way; the vaampyr race will continue until the end of time. She has none of the human sicknesses that have plagued her kind for centuries as the Vaampyr essence mixed with the primitive humans’ -- she is pure.

I laugh, letting the sound reverborate in my chest for a moment before it escapes. "That’ll never happen." I stand, one foot on each side of her, and stare at my psosession. My destiny is fulfilled -- I have found her.

That's all I have for today. I have no real words of wisdom about writing or any profound lessons to teach you. Other than the fact that writing without editing as I go is really working, and I recommend any writer to try it. Whether you can quit cold turkey or you have to ease yourself out of the line editing by only letting yourself edit after you finish xx word count... or whatever... I'm finding that my inhibitions are really let down and I actually LIKE my work. So, give it a try!

For my non-writer readers... maybe I'll have more non-writing related news tomorrow. Later and thanks for reading!!

NaNo. Week 1, Day 2

Off to a great start!! I'd like to get more word count padding to my month, but so far I'm sitting at 4909 for two days' work. And it's not even 2pm yet. I still have more prime writing hours while the baby's sleeping. I've written the first chapter and a half, and introduced the entire ensemble of important people. Two more will be added later, but for now all the main figures are on the floor.

Due to that crappy internet connection I mentioned before, I figured I'd go ahead and blog for today while I can. I wanted to share a couple of lists taken directly from Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! Novel-Writing Kit. (I'm sure I'll reference this constantly, since it's kind of the official NaNo book and all.)

The lists are called the Magna Cartas. Magna Carta I is a list of elements I love in novels, while MG II is a list of elements that bore, exhaust, or depress me (shamelessly ripped from said Kit.)

I thought it'd be fun to share my lists with you.

Here's my MGI:

• inner turmoil
• quick pace
• past tense
• "literary" style -- not too casual, kind of "pretty" writing
• witty writing (both characters and the writing itself)
• strong women characters, both main and supporting (unless specifically weak)
• unpredictable
• modern setting (as opposed to, say, Victorian era)
• romance
• love trianges or love with hinderances
• sensitive man (who isn't gay)

Here's my MGII:

• present tense
• overly casual/dumbed-down writing style
• set in earlier times
• predictable
• weak women
• push-0vers of both sexes
• random head-hopping
• heros/heroines who fight their destiny -- it was cool once, now overdone

You'll note that my MGII is mostly the opposite of my MGI. Some of that's... well, predictable.

Here's why I shared this with you --

I've already used 2.5 of my MGII elements. Why the heck would I use something on my MGII list?? Baty's books warn writers that this will happen, but I (like so many others, I'm sure) didn't expect it to happen to me. Seriously, since when do I write in present tense with a casual style? And I think my MC, A, is starting to fight her destiny a bit. Why would she do that when I've imagined her to be this ass-kicking bad-girl with hair to her bum and a body to die for?

I guess this leads to what I've learned so far on my journey to the 50K work novel. Nothing is predictable. Characters WILL take the novel over, no matter how much you don't believe in that concept. I think it really is the sign of a good writer when your characters are alive enough to make their own path in the story. Some people disagree, and that's their prerogative. For me, I'm just excited to get back to my untitled Vaampyr novel and see where A and G will take me next!

NaNo. Week 1, Day 1

It's 7:10pm and I have written... 2604 words today. I'm not letting myself look back over them, because I know I'll try to revise. They probably suck, but I'm trying to be ok with that.

So, NaNo's officially underway and I'm about 1K words ahead of the word count. Woohoo! I'm trying to pad it as much as I can because I know I'll get stuck in a few days.

I've bookmarked Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! guide to writingn a novel in 30 days, and the accompanying Novel Writing Kit. Each are very humourous and witty, and layout challenges and issues that might befall me during any given week of this wonderful month we call November.

So far, the biggest issues I have actually come across are:

The title. Right now, everything is being saved as "Vaampyr." If you couldn't guess, my novel is a vampire fantasy. It also has some serious sci-fi elements, and I just hope I can flesh those out alright in the end.

The voices. I have two main characters (herefore refered to as the MCs, or A and G) and each has a first person POV. They toggle back and forward, and already at this point into it, they've toggled more than I thought they would. And each has a completely different voice. G is supposed to be dark and mysterious, and possibly a killer. A is a protector of her people, as well as being their princess, for lack of a better term. So you can see why they need to sound different. I'm not sure if I'm doing a good job or not, but I'll tackle that later.

Moving the plot forward. I'm not "stuck," per se, but this fight scene seems to be taking longer than I thought. And what's with the ceremonial headpiece? Already my story's got a mind of its own!!

Writing from the POV of werewolves and vampires. This might be the trickiest by far. How much "sensing" do they need to do? What kind of "senses" do they have? They each have superpowers, and some human weaknesses, so I'm pretty much free to play with them. But really. I've never written anything like this before, and I already think my werewolf is smelling things too much.

I hope to share with you some of my favorite lines and small passages as I write, but at the moment nothing exceptionally bright is sticking out to me. In due time, my friends.

So far, NaNo's a blast. My dad's supposedly doing it with me, so I'll have to check in on him soon...

In other news, Halloween was yesterday. I'm sure you knew that. Here are a couple pictures from our evening out:

That's it for now. Check back later if you think I might have something remarkably insightful or witty to say!

Thanks for stopping by. Oh, and if you see me around during November, just give me a swift kick in the pants. Chances are, I've already gotten behind on my word count.

Happy Halloween!!!....

Oh yeah, and ONE DAY TIL NANO!!

So, in my previous posts, I told you how psyched I was for November 1st. Let me change my mood for you here:

I'm FREAKING OUT!!

I had gotten my major ideas down a couple of weeks ago, then figured I'd just wing it from there. Overplanning can be bad, right?

Then yesterday, my writing buddy (Hi, A.T.!!!!) asked me some questions and I couldn't answer them. And I realized -- I know the main points, but not the order of the main points, the description of my MCs beyond a few things like hair color, the names of the other characters, the time it's set in... anything!

So, the two days before NaNo are officially freak-out days for me. Ahhh!!!! I'm sitting here with construction paper, highlighters, and index cards, trying to get it all written down and tacked into order for when I start writing at midnight tonight. All while talking to A.T. on IM and getting asked MORE questions!!

Speaking of writing at midnight... Lillie is here again, which means I woke up at 5:30am. Which means I don't know if I can make it to midnight and still be awake to write. But I made Hubby promise to take care of the baby so I can write at least 2K words tomorrow morning before he leaves me for his wrestling gig. I'll settle for 1,667, but I REALLY am going to aim for 2K every day.

We'll see how it goes.

In other news, today's Halloween, obviously. IE is NOT done yet -- I'm sitting just under 80K, though, so I'm happy for now. It WILL be done by 12/31!!!! We bought Lillie a pumpkin costume and a couple little "Baby's 1st Halloween" outfits. SO CUTE!!! So, after I freak out some more about NaNo, I'm going to play dress-up and take my mind off of it for a while.

Next time you hear from me, I'll have begun the challenge. I'll keep you updated, and I promise to share those tidbits of writing lessons I learned recently, for those of you interested. And, eventually I'll even share some spoilers from IE and maybe even my NaNo novel, that is yet untitled.

Later!!

Anniversary, Strangers, and ... 7 Days Til NaNo!!

If there’s one night of the year you want your ass to look good and your new bra to fit properly… it’s your anniversary, right? The one night of the year I REALLY want my hair to not be frizzy, and my clothes to not be just a hair too tight.

Yesterday was my 3rd wedding anniversary. And none of the above things actually happened. My new jeans were frumpy, I wore an old bra and an old barely flattering top, and my frizzy hair was in a ponytail. Exciting, right?

Let me tell you, it was a plain Jane night, but we had a good time. We ate at Outback Steakhouse then went to Walmart and bought cookie dough, sweatpants, and popcorn (I'm still wearing my super-comfy sweats!). Went home, cuddled up with all the afore-mentioned items, and watched The Strangers....

Which.

SUCKED.

Everyone said it was SOOOOO good, including Stephen King. As a fellow writer, I adore Mr. King. But, he lied to me. And now the circle of trust is broken. I may never love again :-(
It wasn't scary, or suspenseful, or anything. And I'm getting SO freakin' tired of Liv Tyler (who I have no problem w/ in general) talking in an airy damsel-in-distress voice. She did it in The Incredible Hulk (which I loved) too.

Now that my movie review is over.... 7 days till NaNo!!!!

I'm up to 77K on IE, and there are 6 writing days until the end of the month. Then, at midnight on Nov. 1, I'm starting my vaampyr novel... Yay!!!

I'll check in later with some NaNo tidbits I've been learning. For now, I'm out ☺

Missing Lillie, Seeing Saw, and 8 Days Til NaNo

Due to a really bad Internet connection, I haven’t been able to post my progress on... well, anything, regularly. So, here’s the sitch:

IE is ALMOST DONE!!!! The first draft, anyhow, which Anne Lamott calls the “shitty first draft,” pardon my French. I’m at 76K words out of an estimated 90-95K. This is the longest I’ve ever stuck with a novel. I hope to finish it by Halloween, and some days I get a killer word count in. But others are pretty bland (91, anyone?!). So we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be really close to finished by the time November starts.

Speaking of November… 8 days til NaNo! (As if you didn’t already know that…) I’m PSYCHED!!! My good ole’ reading dummy and I have been going over the plot. It’s gonna be CrAzY! I keep getting tempted to start writing but I’m not a cheater. So, I think I’ll hatch a plan to take a long nap on Halloween so I can wake up and start writing at 12:01am. It sounds good in theory, anyhow. J

My region’s NaNo Kick-Off party is tomorrow evening. It sucks that I can’t go. But I have good reason – it’s my 3rd wedding anniversary!! I’d show you a wedding pic, but well, when you elope at the courthouse… you don’t really have any. I don’t think we have plans but it would still be pretty rude of me to go chill with strangers during the dinner hour.

In other news, my beautiful niece Lillie spent 6 days with us recently. We just took her home yesterday. I cried so hard when I was packing her stuff up to go, and again after we dropped her off. I’d keep her forever if I could. The way things are looking with her parents, maybe I have a chance… Anyhow, the point is, I miss her terribly. She lives a little over an hour away, and after dropped her off, hubby and I went and had some Mexican food. Then on the way home I wanted to stop in and see her again. But I figured that would make me even sadder, so we didn’t. BTW, Lillie’s 6 month’s old (on 11/5) and the best baby ever personality-wise. I love her to pieces. We took her to get her 6-month pics this week, and I can’t wait to get them back on the 6th. They’re SO adorable!! Lillie’s named after my grandma, who died a year and a half ago. Not a day goes by when I don’t miss her. I need at least one Lillie in my life!!

I saw Saw V last night... stayed up late (I’m getting old!) for the midnight showing. It was SO not worth it. Scott Patterson had a bad toupee, or real hair that looked like a bad toupee… the entire movie was flashbacks, and the ending that Myspace said I wouldn’t believe – it was cheap and not at all the “OMG!” ending I had hoped for. Everyone I went with felt the same way. Man, what a waste of prime sleeping time!!!

I guess that’s it for now. I’m really trying to write a pivotal scene in IE and I’m hitting brainfreeze like crazy. I’ve been avoiding this scene for that reason – it’s been ½ written for a while but I can’t seem to find a way to end it. I freakin’ hate that. Maybe I’ll let my reading dummy help….

Adios, Amigos! Until we meet again – which will hopefully be soon because NaNo starts in 8 days!!


Books I’m reading:
No Plot? No Problem! -- Chris Baty (the NaNo book, but it’s really inspring. Pick it up!)
Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel – Cathy Yardley (IE isn’t exactly chick lit but it’s close enough that for $5 the book was worth it. There’s some valuable advice in there!)
Night Embrace – Sherrilyn Kenyon (just for shiggles!)

It's Been a While...

It's obviously been a while since I've written. Nothing really interesting has gone on, so why bore the cyber world with my woes?

Oh, but I did recently get a new kitty!!! His name is Charlie Sheen and he's SO cute! I don't have a lot of pictures but here's one I actually got him to sit still for --

Anyhow, I'm super excited for November to get here... but also wishing October would slow the hell down!!!

NaNoWriMo starts November first and this will be my first year trying it out. I have a story I've been waiting to work on since the summer, and I'm psyched! Now, if I can just finish Isaac's Eyes by Halloween like I'd planned, so that I can concentrate on my newest story....

For those of you who don't know what NaNo is, here's the website: http://www.nanowrimo.org/. In a nutshell, a bunch of wacko writers try to find time in their busy lives to write 50,000 words or more on one novel between November 1st and November 30th. The catch is that you can't have worked on it prior to November 1, so you have to start fresh. It sounds tough but some recent changes in my life have given me lots more free time than I had before. I think I can handle it!!

On other notes, the holidays are fast approaching, which freaks me out. I just made plans for Thanksgiving dinner, which I love to cook for my family, and a Halloween party for adults, which will be far different than the usual kiddy party we throw. I don't even want to THINK about Christmas yet....

That's it for now. Just checking in and all that. I'm going to write more about NaNo as it approaches and through November, and if I happen to learn anything along the way, I'll be sure to share that wisdom with you too!!

Randomness

Hubby comes back tomorrow!! ☺


Even though I *am* enjoying the relaxation of coming home to just my cat and dog (see Emilio [Estevez] and Chesney, below),






I'm pretty psyched to see him. But (ugg) I have to pick him up at the airport after work. I'm a pretty anxious driver, and I don't like the crowds or whirly-twirly quick lane changes of the airport. And I hate parking garages. So, yeah... That part won't be fun. But, he's coming home! And... he bought me ink pens!! Pretty exciting, I know. It's hard to contain myself.

In all seriousness, though, I ♥ big, fat ink pens. They're easier on my carpal tunnel. I tried to take a picture to show you, but my phone is stupid and kept saying the picture failed. I'll show you another time so you can see how big of a nerd I am.

In other news... I wrote 2,075 words today. Woohoo!!!!! It was another stressful day at work so I'm glad I got that much done.

Speaking of work, I have to get a part time job. This should be fun. Everything that's decent isn't part time, and everything that's part time... sucks. We'll see how that works out.

Check out this website I found earlier (thanks to the awesome people at CC). It's a pretty fun. I got a 53 on my first try! www.languagetrainersgroup.com/accent_game.html

Oh, hey, my pizza's here! Mmm... whole wheat crust with pepperoni and spicy sausage. Yummy!! I'm off to eat.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Six Days into August and I'm Stressed Already

The title says it all.

I have this nifty Excel spreadsheet where I input the # of words I write and all the revisions I make, etc. every day. Last month, I hit record numbers on everything. This month? My poor little spreadsheet is bare.

Today I've managed to get 1,246 words written though. It's better than nothing, but I have to do more than that to get back on track to meet my goal of 15K words this month.

My non-writer friends don't understand this compulsion to meet a writing goal -- so I'm extremely grateful for my writer/author friends (because who knows what you're supposed to call them?) who completely understand me!

On the non-writing front, I'm going down to part-time at work when school starts so I can get my senior year finished and graduate next summer!! I'm really anxious about affording to, you know, LIVE this semester while I'm working less, but I'm just happy people are supportive and willing to help out. I'm so scared of the workload this semester, and I hope my writing doesn't suffer because of it! (OK, I know I said this was the non-writing front, but it's a big part of who I am so pretty much everything just ties back into it.)

Oh, and Hubby's out of town for the week, so I'm living it up, Single Style. It's pretty nice -- I could get used to this! Shhh, don't tell him though *wink wink*

Maybe I'd have a higher word count if I stopped playing on blogspot and actually started typing.... I'm off to give that new thought a try for a while.

My First Blog/August Goals

That's right, ladies and gents...

I'm a blog virgin.

What can I say? It's just never felt... right ☺

But, it's the first day of August (where has the time gone?) and I'm pleasantly surprised with my writing accomplishments for July. Plus, my senior year (FINALLY!) at IUPUI starts in 20 days. So, I figured I might as well join my fellow writers, students, and everyone else out there who blogs... What the heck, right?!

For my First Blog, I figured I'd lay my goals for August out on the table for all to see. Feel free to kick my butt to keep me in line with them, too!


Writing Goals:

• Write at least 15K on Isaac's Eyes (see WIPs for more info).
• Write at least 2 completely new short stories this month.
• Get off my bum and revise/edit my current completed shorts and search for somewhere to market them!

Other Goals:

• I don't think I can get too far behind in my classes since they don't start til the 20th -- but even so, I would like to start strong.
• Make it to the gym. That's it. I won't quantify it, because I never go as often as I'd like.

That's it! In a nutshell, there's my August. Work, school, and writing. I can't believe it's fall already and I'm not looking forward to Indiana autumn weather -- hot, humid, and all around gross. Yuck. But, what can I do besides keep working hard and waiting til the day I can apply to the University of Florida for graduate school?

It's time for the 5pm commute home. Peace out ☻