Monday, December 2, 2013

Nano summary...

Well, my Nano project, "Murder On the High Seas," clocked in at 30,023 words by midnight on the 30th (or 30,102 words if you take the website's count).  Either way, I missed 50k by a bit.

While I would've liked to have hit the 50,000 word mark last month, I am not as disappointed as I expected to be.  30,000 words are still a lot.  It's my best one-month word count since 2011.  And I'm probably halfway through this particular novel, which is not a bad thing.

My current goals?  One is to write 20,000 new words of fiction this month.  That will give me 180,000 words for the year, which is my goal for 3013.  This doesn't count the column, or exercises I'm doing for a short online workshop I'm taking.  These are either for a novel or a short story.

Another goal I have is to get my latest novel, "Redemption," published.  I have some copyedits I need to finish going through and then it can be put out.  I hope to have it up before Christmas - I will announce it here when it comes out, and JJ Press will also be making an announcement about it.

Remember - it's better to try and fail then not to try at all.  What are your goals for December?

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Nano update: Day 10

Well, here we are at day 10 of Nanowrimo.  Technically I should be at 16,670 words if I were on schedule.

However, that was not meant to be.  Due to a variety of factors I have clocked in at day 10 with a mere 10,132 words.

Is that low?  Yeah, for the pace I hoped to set, that's a few thousand short (I was hoping to be closer to 20k by now).  Am I disappointed?  Yeah, a little.  Am I discouraged?  Not really.  I have 20 days left on this thing and could still hit 50k if I push myself some.  So it's still doable.

And here's the thing.  As things stand now, my word count for November is better than my word counts were for September and October.  I have an excellent chance for this to be my best total word count month for the year, even if I miss the 50k mark (my best month so far this year was June with 18,462 words).

Do I still want to hit 50k?  Indeed.  I'm estimating the book I'm working on to clock in at around 60k so that would put it close to finished.  And 50k would help me hit my goal for 180,000 new fiction words this year (this doesn't count the column I write every week, which is non-fiction).

So I'm a third of the way through, not exactly where I want to be, but not ready to lay down and quit yet.  So if you're working on Nano and still have a ways to go, don't give up!  Just keep writing.  And I'll update you again in a few days on my progress.

Write on!

Friday, November 1, 2013

It's November...

...so it must be National Novel Writing Month, that time of year when I mainline caffeine and lose what's left of my mind.

The goal of National Novel Writing Month (otherwise known as Nanowrimo, or Nano) is to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  That breaks down to about 1,667 words a day, or around six and a half pages.

Is it crazy?  For sure.  Hard?  You know it.  Am I going to do it?  Of course!  Even if I don't hit the goal of 50,000 I will have a lot of new words written and be well on the way to writing a new novel.

The novel I'm writing?  "Death On the High Seas."  It's about a murder that takes place on a stranded cruise ship and the woman who tries to solve the case.

I'll try to update you with my progress.  Meanwhile, if you've ever wanted to write a book, this is a great time to start it!  Let me know if you're participating!

Friday, August 9, 2013

Happy National Book Lover's Day!

Today is National Book Lover's Day!  It's a great opportunity to visit your local library, or pluck a book from your shelves to read, or charge up your ebook reader.  It's also a great day to buy books - check out my ebooks and bibliography if you're interested in adding to your library!

It would also be a good day to start writing that book you've been planning to pen.  Fire up that word processor and have at it!

I plan to work on my own work-in-progress (wip) today and read some good stuff.  Hope you enjoy the day!

Friday, June 28, 2013

What a week and a day!

Got back this week from attending an amazing Mystery Workshop.  Learned a lot about mysteries and how to write them, as well as the differences between the various flavors of mysteries, from cozy to noir.

It was an intense time of attending sessions, working on assignments, and writing.  I wrote over 9,000 words last week, quite often under the gun of a looming deadline.  (I can type very fast when I'm motivated, and I was very motivated).

The course was taught by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, an amazing writer and editor in her own right.  Her husband Dean Wesley Smith also stopped by to offer his take on things in the writing business.

All in all it was a great if exhausting week.  I got to meet or see again some very talented writers who wrote great stories that I look forward to seeing published in the future.  We had a lot of fun bonding over breakfast and during breaks.

So now I've (hopefully) caught up on my sleep and can get back to work.  I'm currently working on some writing and also hope to have some things ready to be published before the end of July.  I will keep you posted!


Thursday, May 9, 2013

My take on the BONES finale

It has been over a week, but I still find myself thinking about the BONES finale that aired April 29th.  I've been meaning to post about my thoughts on it but life kept getting in the way.  Now that I am somewhat calmer perhaps this is a good time to share my views.
In case you haven't seen the episode and don't want to be spoiled, I'm adding spoiler space.  This is your cue to quit reading this post if you don't want to know what happened...
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5...I'm not kidding, you don't want to be spoiled, leave now!
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Okay.

I enjoy BONES.  When Brennan and Booth finally got together I was very happy.  What would make me happier?  Easy.  I want them to be married.

In "The Secret in the Siege," what fans have hoped for finally happened.  In the middle of the episode, Brennan proposes to Booth, in a way only she can.  It was completely in character, and a joyful Booth says yes.  I and the rest of fandom go wild with joy.

Alas, what Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan give us with one hand, they cruelly take away with the other.

At the end of the episode, the season's big baddie Christopher Pelant contacts Booth and tells him unless he calls off the proposal (without telling Brennan why) 5 random people will die.  Booth has no choice but to comply.  In an emotionally wrenching scene he breaks off the engagement, breaking Brennan's heart (and throwing fans all over into despair).  If I remember correctly, we close on a shot of a devastated Brennan.  Fade to black.

I was FURIOUS after this episode.  I wound up ranting to two friends on Facebook about it, and they fortunately were patient with me and let me get it out of my system, even though neither of them watch the show.

I am not alone in my feelings.  Many fans reacted negatively to the end of this episode, with a few vowing they were done with the show.  Just about everyone took aim and Hanson and Nathan for messing around with our favorite couple AGAIN.

BONES fans have had to wait a long time for these two to get together.  We've put up with rivals, miscommunication, lines, and a whole lot of angst to get to see them as a romantic couple.  Now, with one blow, The Powers that Be (TPTB) have put all of that at risk - why?  Do they LIKE causing us pain?  Do they think if we get what we want we'll quit watching?  Do they think?

The ending felt like a slap in the face to fans.  If TPTB wanted to tick off a major portion of fandom, they succeeded.  I'm not sure that's a great business model, however.

They do have a chance to fix this, however.  Season 9 is in four months (and fanfiction writers are already burning up their keyboards with their own versions of fixes).  And Nathan promised in an interview that "Booth will make this right."  So there is hope.

Here, in my humble opinion, is my take on what could possibly happen in Season 9:

1) Pelant has to die.  There is no way that throwing this guy in jail is going to be good enough for anyone.  Who will do the deed?  Booth is the obvious choice, but there are certainly other contenders for the job.
2) Booth will become obsessed with getting Pelant.  I think he will try to get some under-the-radar help from someone not in law enforcement.  My guess is he'll confide in Max, Brennan's dad, who certainly has proven he can live off the grid.
3) Booth and Brennan will not break up, but it's going to be tough for them.  I'd like to think Brennan suspects something isn't right about all this - she is very intelligent - but she may be thinking with her heart and letting it cloud her judgement.  While I don't think TPTB will allow her to discover Booth's real reasons for a while, my hope is she doesn't doubt his feelings for her.
4) It's going to be very tough for Booth with the Squints, since he can't tell them what's really going on.  I'm willing to bet Angela will be on the warpath.
5) Once this is all over?  I suspect it will take time for our couple to heal.  Then it will be Booth's turn to propose, and maybe, just maybe, TPTB will let us have what we've waited for all this time - a B/B wedding.

Final question: Will I watch Season 9?

That choice may be taken from me, at least at first.  I may have a scheduling conflict beginning in September that will last 10 weeks.  So unless I talk my husband into a DVR (no, I don't have one yet, despite my love of tech) or take time to watch the episodes online, I'll be missing episodes.

But then again, I cared enough to do a whole blog post on the topic.  So perhaps it's not so far a stretch to say I'll be watching.

After all, I'm still hoping for my happy ending.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Help for Ben Wolverton

Author David Farland's son, Ben Wolverton, was in a bad accident and received serious injuries.  Fellow wordsmiths have joined together to raise funds to help defray medical expenses.

Please click the link below and help if you can:

http://www.helpwolverton.com/p/books-for-book-bomb.html

Thanks.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Okay, maybe I'm just not a blogger...

...you would think that I was, being a writer and everything.  But it's been months since I posted anything and I noticed I hadn't added some books to my bibliography and ebooks page.  Almost everything is now updated and (hopefully) all the links work properly.

Anyway, is there anything in particular you'd like to see me blather about here?  I will try to do better on keeping everyone up to speed.  Any writing news I will try to report as soon as possible.  Any other news I will also try to post.

In the meantime, explore the site, let me know what you'd like to see!