Some Updates and Publishing News

 Hoping everyone is surviving the insane times we're in.  Today my state apparently was hit with a little hurricane - in November!  Yes, we're still in hurricane season but come on now, this is getting ridiculous, 2020.

In positive news, today marks day 135 of writing every day!  I started at the end of June, attempting to get some words done every day.  In the beginning, there was no minimum - I just had to get some words down.  My record low was 68 words.  As the months went by, I decided to set a minimum of 250 words/day.  

This has been an incredible ride.  The writing is better, because I'm giving it the time it needs.  I feel better about it because I'm making it a priority.  And it's a lot more fun.

I also got a new short story out - my third in the Eli Leafrunner series.  It's in ebook form only, wherever you buy yours.  Here's the cover:

I hope you enjoy his latest adventure.

Will have more news soon - stay tuned.  And stay safe.

P.S. I'm involved in Nanowrimo this year - if you want to friend me, my username is bookwormlady.  See you there!

Life Rolls

In an earlier post, I may have written about the concept of "life rolls."  These are events that happen in your life that can temporarily derail you.  They don't have to be bad - but they are often major.

On August 24th I was struck with not one but two major life rolls.  My dear mother-in-law, whom I had been taking care of for some time, passed away.

Within the hour we received news that our dog, Barney, had to be put to sleep.

One of these is bad.  Together?  I wept in someone's arms, saying I couldn't cope with it.  That I wasn't strong enough to deal with the weight of grief.

But I did.  And I am.  More or less.

I gave myself permission to drop everything, including the writing, for a time. The time was brief for some things (I only took one week off of my column that appears on Saturdays, but it was not due to pressure - I could have taken longer - but I wanted to see if I could still do it).

I worried that grief had broken writer brain.  I had a Romance Writing Workshop I was scheduled to go to in less than a month, and I wondered if I could still write decent fiction.  Perhaps it seems strange that I would worry about that, but I had a lot of trouble with writing after my father-in-law died.

I decided to go ahead and go to the workshop after the people giving it encouraged me to come.  There was a story assignment.  I wrote something for it, only getting stuck when it came to a title - and usually titles are the first thing I come up with.  But I put together a tale that had a beginning, middle, and end.

I went to the workshop.  I did most of the exercises assigned and wrote two more stories, as well as two novel sketches.  And to my relief, I discovered writing brain was not broken.  I could still produce good fiction.

And I only had one meltdown and one choked-up moment.  So that was a win too.

Now?  As one person put it, I'm finding my sea legs.  I am no longer a caregiver, so looking to fill that empty space in my life is what I'm working on.  It's not a straight line - grief appears to take weird turns and detours - and I'm still trying to find my way.

But I WILL find it. 

Next month I plan to tackle Nanowrimo, and hope to thrash out 50,000 words.  It feels daunting. But maybe, just maybe, I can do it.

If you're a praying person, pray for me as I walk this road.  If you don't pray, I'll take good thoughts.  If you've read this far, thank you.

Feel the Fear and Nanowrimo

I am going to blame Hurricane Irma for the current lapse in blogging. The storm (I live in Florida) messed up September and some of it carried over into October. But I want to share good news. My story, "High Places," is a part of Fiction River's Feel the Fear anthology, which came out last month. If you like to be scared, it's a great anthology. My story deals with a woman afraid of heights, and as one who has this fear in spades, it was great therapy to write. Hopefully you will "feel the fear" when you read it. You can buy the anthology at the usual sites, and I will post an Amazon link in the Bibliography section of this blog. And if you're interested, I am doing Nanowrimo again this year. Unfortunately, my word count is currently abysmal as I work on things. But hopefully it will grow as the month progresses. If you are doing Nano and want to friend me, I'm Bookwormlady there. Hope you are all having a wonderful month of reading!

Tuesday Thoughts: The Conclusion of Nano and a New Book Out!

Yes, this should be Monday Musings, but by the time I finished writing I was exhausted.  And it completely slipped my mind.  So please forgive me for being late.

I finished up this year's Nanowrimo at 25,074 words.  While it's only half of the 50k I was aiming for, it is my best month this year and better than I did last in last year's Nano.  So I'm calling this a win on my side.

On the plus side as well I am working on a novel that has fired my interest, even if I'm at the stage where it all seems like garbage (every novel hits this stage when you write, you just push through it) and I hope to finish this one by early next year.

Speaking of novels, I have a new one out.  TWO WEEKS IN GUYANA is available as an ebook in all the usual spots and should be available as a print book shortly.  I hope you enjoy it!

Monday Musings: Nano, Day 23

Here's the thing: I'm not going to make 50k.

As I said last week, I'm not as upset about it as I could be.  This could well be my most productive month this year.  And I'm still interested in this project, even if my timeline is a mess (long story).

But making 50k would've been nice.

But while doing this, I've also managed to get a book to the proofing stage, which means it's almost ready to be launched.  Hopefully that's something I can report on next week.

While I plan to get a bunch of writing done this week, it's also about family.  I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner.  We will have 8 people and 6 (yes, 6) dogs at our house.  Pray for us! <g>

And I hope all of you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Monday Musings: Nano day 16

By this time I should've passed the halfway mark on Nanowrimo.  That's 25,000 words for those keeping count.

If you look at the small applet above this post, you'll see I just passed 15k.  Which means I'm over 10,000 words behind.

Part of me is a little frustrated.  I really wanted to hit the 50k mark this year, and the odds of my doing that are steadily shrinking.  It is still doable at this stage if I can push myself - but at this point I'd have to average 2,304 words a day to make it.  That's a lot of words per day, especially with the fact this novel seems to be slowing down my writing pace for some reason.

But part of me is not unhappy so far.

The last time I went over 10k in a monthly wordcount was July.  And I'm looking to break 20k if not more by the time November is over.  Given my poor showing the past few months, that's a victory.

And I'm really getting into this story.  It has been a while since I actually finished a novel, though I have a couple I've worked on over this year.  This novel could well be finished by the end of the year - a good thing.

So I will keep pushing on.  I may not hit 50k, but to  me whatever I end up with this month will be a success.  Let's see how far I go.  :)

Monday Musings: Day Nine of Nanowrimo

Well, as you can see on the tracker on top of this page, I am approaching 10,000 words.

The bad news is I am behind.  By this time I should have something like 15K words written - a 5,000 word deficit.

The good news?  I have already written more this month than last month.  And with discipline and hard work, 5,000 words just isn't that far behind.  Not with 21 days still to go on this thing.

So I haven't given up yet.  Tomorrow I'll crawl out of bed early, fix myself some coffee, and write.

Because Nano or not, I am a writer.  That's what I do.  :)

Monday Musings: Newsletters and Nanowrimo!

If you look on the left side of my home page you will see there is a place to sign up for my newsletter.  It will be a very occasional newsletter - no more than once a month - and I promise not to spam you or give my list to anyone.  So if you want to learn about upcoming publications and the like, sign up!

It is also November, which means National Novel Writing Month.  As in years past, I am participating with a novel I first got the idea for back in 2008.

In 2010 I started to write it but gave up after less than 4,000 words, thinking I wasn't yet a good enough writer to pull it off.

Well, it's been five years.  I'm giving it a shot.

If you are doing Nano and want to be my buddy my name over there is bookwormlady.

Have a great week!

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?

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!

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!

Busy busy

I've been a busy little writer the past few weeks.  In October I attended two writing workshops aimed at improving my epublishing skills.  They were excellent and I learned quite a bit from them, as well as making some great new friends.

Then November rolled around and it was National Novel Writing Month.  I decided to give it a go this year, even though my life was somewhat hectic and I wasn't sure I could crank out the required 50,000 words.  I'm happy to report that not only did I manage to do so, I finished a day early!

This month I took a big step in epublishing - I put up my first novel.  DEAD HYPOCRITES is now live and can be purchased at Amazon.com, BN.com, and smashwords.com.  I hope to have the blurb and the links up before too long.

My goal for December is to hit 200,000 words for the year in writing.  I will have to push myself a little to make it - I have written very little this week, for example - but I am going to try.  It would be a nice finish to a crazy year that has seen many ups and downs for me.

And if I don't get a chance to post again before the end of the year, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!