Playing Catch Up

So, it looks like I can only manage to post here once a week. You'd think that meant I'd been doing a ton of writing, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong. Because I've been doing quite a bit of other things that aren't writing.

Like watching men in kilts throw trees around. Yes, seriously. Why are you looking at me like that? I went to a Celtic Music Festival/Scottish Games. Quite interesting, let me tell you. Men in kilts. Throwing trees. And flinging burlap bags (weighted) into the air with pitchforks. Quite impressive as well. I can only imagine me either hitting myself in the head with the 16-pound hammer, or stabbing myself with the pitchfork. Ah. Good times...The music was excellent, as well. You don't hear many harps these days, but I listened to one awesome performer. All of which allowed me to successfully procrastinate for almost the entire day Sunday. Yes, I'm behind. No, I'm not giving up. I shall hit my word count goal of 100k for NaNo!

Day 10: 1,772 words (23,085 Total)
Day 11: 60,040 (29,125)
Day 12: 1,009 (30,134)
Day 13: 1,012 (31,146)
Day 14: 3,218 (34,364)
Day 15: 1,205 (35,569)
Day 16: 2,180 (37,749)

And, as a side note: I hit my word count goal for the year today! 300,000 words!

NaNoing In Spite of the Storm

Or, Tropical Storm Ida. She's coming ashore tonight, which is supposed to mean wind and rain here. (*Looks outside. No rain. Only occasional signs of wind.*) My company decided this warranted scheduling changes, so I got off two hours early. And what did I do with my ill-gotten gains? Um...caught up on the blogs I haven't read in at least a week. Incessantly checked my email. Looked for random people I have no actual interest in finding on Facebook. Oh, and continually tried to check the NaNo website, which is apparently experiencing some technical difficulty.

And yes, some writing. I actually got 1k this morning before work, and 1.75k tonight, which hits my word count goal for the today, plus 1k to make up for the ah, less than stellar word count weekend I had:

Day Six: 2,509 (17,951 Total)
Day Seven: 322 (18,273)
Day Eight: 264 (18,537)
Day Nine: 2,776 (21,313)

I may not have gotten much writing done this weekend, but I did accomplish some other things: Seeing a completely unbelievable concert on Friday night. Cross Canadian Ragweed (a.k.a. CCR. Yeah, I know, not the CCR. But still completely awesome.). Now, back home, they get airplay on the mainstream country stations, but they're more styled as "Texas Country." Not that you could tell that from their hard-rocking style. I've seen them twice before, both at outdoor venues, and this time was at the Hard Rock Live in Biloxi, MS. Small venue. Mind-blowing show, complete with awe-inspiring guitar and their traditional, in-your-face songs (My favorite? Lighthouse Keeper, which, as a friend of mine said once, only makes sense if you're on something. I wasn't, but I still love that song. It sounds best at top volume with the windows down.) Micky & the Motorcars opened for them. Styled as "alt-country", Micky & the Motorcars also did a great show with a ton of adrenaline.

On Sunday, I participated in a fundraising walk for the National Kidney Foundation. Excellent cause, lots of fun, and done in Audubon Park, which is an oasis of beautiful scenery. Stately old oaks draped with Spanish moss. A small lake. Beautiful houses surrounding it. In short, an excellent setting for Mina to get into some sort of trouble during the course of this book.

So, while I may not have been actually writing, I was researching. Yeah. That's it. Now if I can just figure out a way to work that concert into the story...

Of Murderers and Kilts

I haven't been doing as much reading as normal lately. I'm not sure why. It just seems like I've been super busy, and reading has actually fallen by the wayside (Unheard of, I know). I'm only up to around 112 books read for the year, and that's pretty far short of my year goal of 165. I'm not sure if I'm going to make that one…

I read the newest book in Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series, The Scarpetta Factor. I've read this entire series, and I enjoyed most of them immensely. There were a couple of books, probably the last three or so before this one, that I thought weren't quite up to Cornwell's normally stellar standards, but they were still good reads. I think The Scarpetta Factor brings back a lot of the wonderful things I liked from the earlier books.

All of the familiar characters are back: the reformed Marino, self-destructive Lucy, and of course, Kay and Benton. There's an interesting murder case, as well as a missing person, a bomb delivered to Kay's door, and a mysterious singing Christmas card that really gave me the creeps (Good thing I didn't get that little gem in the mail.) The ending felt a little rushed to me, but it was a good, fast-paced read, and I had trouble putting it down.

A book I absolutely could not put down was Diana Gabaldon's An Echo in the Bone, the newest book in the Outlander series. I read the rest of the series back-to-back during the summer, and was honestly confused to come back to the real world and not find myself in Scotland. (It just felt wrong to not be surrounded by warrior-type men in kilts. Wrong, and sad.) The newest book was absolutely wonderful! I love the characters, feel like I know them personally (I wish, anyway.). Ms. Gabaldon makes the setting, whether it be an early American hillside, the dells of Scotland, or the deck of a sailing ship in the middle of a sea battle, come to life so vividly it amazes me. She's a marvelous writer, and even the minor characters come to striking life on the page.

I stayed up far, far too late reading this book (more than one night), and I have to say, I wish it had been even longer. However, the ending about drove me mad. I wanted so badly to find out what happened next that I could have cried. And when I realized the previous book came out four years ago and I might have to wait that long to actually find out what happens, I did cry. (Huge tears of frustration.) However, I did manage to refrain from banging my head against the wall, so there's one small victory. If you haven't read this series yet, you should run right out and get it. But when you come dragging in some morning, having been up all night glued to the page, and growling because Jaimie and Claire are in limbo while waiting for the next book, don't say I didn't warn you.

We're All Crazy Around Here

Those of us doing NaNo, anyway. So, for those of you who are, how's it going?

Pretty well, for me. I started the month with the first four chapters outlined (just a general, phase outline), and an insane goal of 100k. I had basic ideas of how the story would end up--and that's still where I stand, with no real idea of the ending. I'll be figuring that out soon, though. Hopefully.

My MC, Aramina, is an accident-prone elf who gets shanghaied into looking for the missing son of an old family friend who's been murdered. There's more going on than Mina realizes, including something strange at the tomb of voodoo queen Marie Laveau, and the mystery man she keeps running into. Then there's her cheating ex-boyfriend, a detective working the case, and Lorgan, her best friend (a faerie) who does his best to keep her in tiptop, dressed-to-the nines shape. When he's not singing kareoke or getting handcuffed to his bed, that is. It's tentatively titled Chasing Shadows, although that's not quite right. But it'll do for now.

Day One WC: 9,009
Day Two WC: 531 (9,540 Total)
Day Three WC: 2,832 (12,372)
Day Four WC: 1,512 (13,884)
Day Five WC: 1,558 (15,442)

Loose Ends

The first draft of the Witches sequel is done! It comes in at 135k, which is less than half the word count of the first draft of Witches. It even has a title: Shadows of Winter. The title came to me a couple of days ago, like a bolt from the blue. No, Witches still doesn't have a title, although I'm getting glimmers of an idea in that direction. I try not to push it. It will give me its name when it wants to, sort of like my characters do. I also finished up the first draft of the werewolf story last week. I had computer issues with it that meant I lost about 15k of it, but since I was aware that the story had some issues in the front end, I decided not to worry about that (not that worrying would have done me any good at all anyway), and just put in quick and dirty summaries for the last chapters, since I know good and well there are going to be major changes made during the revision. It's all good.

So, that leaves getting ready for NaNo as my only loose end. With two weeks left, there's plenty of time. Except that for seven of those days, I'm gong to be out of town, and for three days before that, I'll need to be getting ready to leave. So, that really only gives me three days to finish my outline and get everything ready for the madness. No sweat, right? Right. Ah…Need to go look at that outline again. I think I have, oh, the first chapter planned. But I do have some really nasty things in mind to inflict upon my characters…If they'd just finish telling me their names, this would be so much easier!

Things Change

This has been a rather rough weekend. My little brother is moving back to Texas tonight, and I'm really going to miss him. We're pretty close, and he's one of my best friends. Not that I blame him for moving back. I miss it, too, even though I like it here. It's hard, though. Here, I have my parents, a job that I really like, and I've always liked this area. But Texas...will always be home. My friends are there, friends that I really, really miss sometimes. And the culture is totally different there. Much more normal to me. :) It's funny, some of the things I miss, from the music on the radio to the wonderful Mexican food. And don't even get me started on spring. Springtime in Texas is beautiful, with the Indian paintbrushes and the bluebonnets blooming. I get really homesick in the spring.

But I've had so much more time to write here. Part of that is the job I have has normal hours, part of it is me focusing so much on the writing. Regardless, I've gotten a ton of things done in the year since we moved here, and I've gotten all sorts of fodder for stories. Guess things are just on a downswing right now.

On the up side, my BFF had her son last night, so I'd like to say a big hello to little Rowan. I can't wait to see him! (Have a trip all planned for next month.) Until then, I'll just have to admire his pictures.

Querying

Well, I finally bit the bullet and started querying the 2YN novel (To Vanquish a Dragon). I love this story, but it's time it went out into the world. I sent a handful of queries. So far, I've heard back from two agents. Received a form rejection from one, but the other one (Marlene Stringer of Stringer Lit) requested a partial. Now, to the casual observer, when I read that email, I probably looked like I'd just won the lottery. Considering my goal this time around (Okay, the only goal I'd officially let myself hope for.) was something besides a form rejection, I was super excited. Ms. Stringer has since rejected my partial, but she sent a very nice note along with it, which I really appreciated. That one clearly wasn't meant to be, but that doesn't mean the next one isn't. And Ms. Stringer really made my day with that one simple email.