Well, That Was Unexpected a.k.a My NaNo 2015 Adventures

Let me tell you about my NaNoWriMo. We’ll start at the beginning, well, before the beginning. The prologue if you will. October hit with all the excitement and cheer of the NaNo season. Time to plot and get pumped up for a month of too much coffee consumption and mad writing. So, with anticipation, sometime during the beginning of October I sat down and began my usual chapter by chapter outline for my NaNo novel. This particular NaNo I’ve been waiting for since my first one basically. Because this NaNo was going to take all the previous books, which had…

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In Which I Compete With Myself (and lose)

So there I was, happily lost in my story, grinning at my characters’ antics, my fingers click, click, clicking away at the keyboard, when it happened. Out of nowhere. Right between my computer screen and me with its deafening demands and ludicrous responsibilities. LIFE. NOOOOOO!!!!!! How could it? Doesn’t it know it’s NaNoWriMo? Does it not understand I’m far too busy destroying my characters’ lives to deal with my own life? How can it not see? The nerve. I’ve tried to ignore, I have. So hard. But it keeps wedging itself between my NaNo and me and refuses to leave…

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Beautiful Books #2 – The Day and the Life of a NaNoer {November 2015}

GUYS.We have survived the first week of NaNo and are halfway through week two! How is this even POSSIBLE?! My NaNo has slowed down considerably because apparently there’s this weird thing called Life that you actually have to do when you grow up. I thought that was just a myth! I didn’t mean to grow up, it was an accident! Where’s Peter Pan? I need him, quick! Despite Life being rude and trying to wedge itself between NaNoWriMo and me, I’m still surviving (. . .I think?) and continuing to absolutely love my NaNo and spend what time with it…

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Let the Insanity Commence!

“It’s the most wonderful tiiime of the yeeear!” No, it’s not Christmas yet (though it’s never too early to start bellowing out the Christmas tunes in my opinion). I’m actually referring to. . .NANOWRIMO. Yes, it is heeere! And thousands of writers have folded up their lives, put them in boxes, and won’t be pulling them back out until December. Because hello? We’ve got novels to write and life is not part of the equation. Duh. Per tradition, I go a liiittle insane during NaNo and am currently sitting on 17k words. Oops? I do tend to do a double…

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Beautiful Books – More Black than Night {October 2015}

Guess whaaaat? NaNoWriMo starts next week! *waits for screaming and flailing and panicking to quiet down* I know. O_O I’m trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we only have a week of October left. Craziness! Next time you hear from me I’ll be plunged right into the depth of the insanity that is NaNo. So while I still have a tinge of my sanity left (I’ve never had much to begin with, but it all gets shipped far away during November) I’m actually going to talk about my NaNo! Because I shockingly haven’t done that yet. Usually…

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My Writing Process a.k.a How I Throw Words on a Page and Call It Writing

Recently Mirriam Neal shared her process for writing, and a couple others of my Pack sisters joined in and did the same, so I couldn’t help but hop into the bandwagon myself. Even though I don’t really have a writing process. *cough, cough* This is more of a conglomeration of writerly things I do to get a book written, but my “process” is basically different with every book I write. So do not expect any great wisdom or organization from this post. My writing process is akin to a mad scientist experimenting with all sorts of different combinations of potions…

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Flash Fiction – Into the Rift

Confession: I never write flash fiction. I basically never venture out and write anything but whatever current novel I’m working on at the time. I always feel guilty writing something else when I already have a novel that needs my attention, so I. . .never do. BUT right now, since I finished Burning Thorns, I don’t actually have a current writing project going. I’m free. So I did the unthinkable. I wrote a flash fiction piece. Bum bum BUMMM. My Pack (my online writing group of fabulous girls) has this thing called “Writer Dares” where we post random writing prompt…

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And They Lived…

On July 13th of last year (2014), I started a Beauty and the Beast novella called Tossing Roses with the intention of entering it in Rooglewood Press's Fairytale Contest. Halfway through writing I retitled it Burning Thorns, deciding it fit better with the theme. Two months after starting it I finished the 20k novella, later jumped into editing, shared it with my critique partners, edited some more, did NaNoWriMo somewhere in between there, yet more editing, and then in December sent it off for the contest. On February 1st I learned Burning Thorns was not one of the winners for…

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I’ll Take That Dessert Now

I am currently in a vigorous escapade of writing the big ol’ climatic ending of Burning Thorns. I’ve been writing, well, a lot lately with my 30k word goal in June and now pushing forward to make it to the end of the story. This is how we all feel when getting to the ending, right? Due to all the writing, I was recently feeling some burnout and really just wanted to close my laptop and go take a long nap. (And by long I mean like a week.) Writing is my life passion, but sometimes you can have a…

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In Which I Write a Lot of Words Rambling About Writing a Lot of Words

“30 days, 30k words. Yeah, I can do this.”That was my ever optimistic (if not a bit impractical) self at the beginning of June. “I can’t do thisssss.”My much more realistic side kicked in come mid-June. “Maybe I can do this?”Nearing the end of June. Hopeful? Wishful thinking? Anyone’s guess. “Nope, not gonna make— Wait. Did I just hit my word goal?”Last days of June. Too exhausted to even realize that I HIT 30K WORDS. Ahem. So yes. June has been a bit of a hectic whirlwind of words and life and other stuff I probably don’t even remember at…

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